Ulla Rahbek

As witnessed during the very close 2014 referendum on Scottish independence and during the 2016 referendum on British EU membership, sub-state national identities in Britain remain strong and increasingly challenge the idea of a United Kingdom. In Britain Today, topics and key subjects are chosen to reflect the most important social, political, and cultural issues in Britain today, with a focus on those that Scandinavian lecturers and students will find particularly important and engaging. This thoroughly revised second edition includes two new chapters on Socio-Economic Structures and Stratification and on Britain and the European Union. Topics and key subjects are chosen to reflect the most important social, political, and cultural issues in Britain today, with a focus on those that Scandinavian lecturers and students will find particularly important and engaging. Avoiding overly descriptive approaches, the book provides introductions to prominent ideas, social, political, and cultural critique and responses, all of contemporary relevance. In addition to providing the necessary basic and factual information, the book and its homepage suggest student assignments, topics for presentations and essays, and literature for further reading. The chapters of the book are organized thematically and arranged in balanced and substantial modules. This means that each chapter can stand alone and need not be read or taught as part of a particular sequence. This allows lecturers to easily design a course on the basis of Britain Today according to their own preferences or curricular demands. On the book's website http://britaintoday.hansreitzel.dk/, you can find assignments, relevant links and suggestions for further reading.

'A wide-ranging, erudite and multi-faceted analyses of the fundamental problem of who gets to be counted as human' - Kate Evans Refugee Talk explores cultural responses to the ongoing refugee crisis. Looking at ethical questions and political rhetoric surrounding the refugee experience, the authors uncover the reality behind the fraught discussions taking place today. With an understanding of how to meaningfully negotiate responses through philosophy, media representations, art, activism and literature, the authors insist that a radically different approach is needed, advocating for, along with other reorientations, a new refugee vocabulary as a launching pad for interventions into polarised debates. By centring conversation as a method and ethical practice to engage in the discourses surrounding refugees, Refugee Talk is structured around dialogues with academics, activists, journalists and refugee artists and writers, creating a comprehensive humanities approach that places ethics and aesthetics at its core.

'A wide-ranging, erudite and multi-faceted analyses of the fundamental problem of who gets to be counted as human' - Kate Evans Refugee Talk explores cultural responses to the ongoing refugee crisis. Looking at ethical questions and political rhetoric surrounding the refugee experience, the authors uncover the reality behind the fraught discussions taking place today. With an understanding of how to meaningfully negotiate responses through philosophy, media representations, art, activism and literature, the authors insist that a radically different approach is needed, advocating for, along with other reorientations, a new refugee vocabulary as a launching pad for interventions into polarised debates. By centring conversation as a method and ethical practice to engage in the discourses surrounding refugees, Refugee Talk is structured around dialogues with academics, activists, journalists and refugee artists and writers, creating a comprehensive humanities approach that places ethics and aesthetics at its core.

This book explores contemporary British multicultural multi-genre literature. Considering socio-political and philosophical ideas about British multiculturalism, superdiversity and conviviality, Ulla Rahbek studies a broad range of texts by writers from across the majority-minority divide. The text focuses on figurative registers and metaphorical richness in multicultural poetry and investigates the interlocked issue of recognition, representation and identity in memoirs. Rahbek analyses how twenty-first-century British multicultural novels both envision and reimagine an inclusive nation and thematise the detrimental effects of individual exclusion on characters’ pursuits of the good life. She observes the ways that short stories pivot on ambivalent encounters and intercultural dialogue, and she reflects on the public good of multicultural literature.

This book explores contemporary British multicultural multi-genre literature. Considering socio-political and philosophical ideas about British multiculturalism, superdiversity and conviviality, Ulla Rahbek studies a broad range of texts by writers from across the majority-minority divide. The text focuses on figurative registers and metaphorical richness in multicultural poetry and investigates the interlocked issue of recognition, representation and identity in memoirs. Rahbek analyses how twenty-first-century British multicultural novels both envision and reimagine an inclusive nation and thematise the detrimental effects of individual exclusion on characters’ pursuits of the good life. She observes the ways that short stories pivot on ambivalent encounters and intercultural dialogue, and she reflects on the public good of multicultural literature.

Global Voices er en bog om globale samtaler, møder, dialoger og stemmer i den engelsksprogede litteratur. Bogens tekster åbner for en rejse, hvor læserens nysgerrighed og lyst til at indgå i dialog giver mulighed for at træde ind i anderledes verdener. Teksterne er fra så forskellige steder som Australien, England, USA, Kina, Vietnam, Skotland, New Zealand, Vestindien og Nigeria og udgør en ’samtale’ mellem forfattere, kulturer og læsere. Tekstlæsning samt analyse og fortolkning er i fokus i Global Voices. Det er bogens mål at lære eleverne at læse med teori, så de lærer at bruge begreber som ’home’, ’identity’ og ’globalisation’ i deres læsning. Bogen udvikler elevernes kompetencer inden for åbenhed, tolerance, interaktion og interkulturel dialog, så de bliver bedre rustede som globale borgere. Global Voices består af 11 kapitler, der hver har et tematisk fokus som fx identitet, kolonisering eller historie. Hvert kapitels tekster er sat sammen, så der internt i kapitlet er en ’samtale’ mellem de to-fire tekster. Til hver tekst er der pre-reading, questions on the text og post-reading excercises. Forfatteren giver også i opgaverne forslag til, hvordan teksterne ’taler sammen’ på tværs af kapitlerne.

In Search of the Afropolitan explores human encounters and moments that speak to the challenges of being a 21st century African of the world. Against the background of an engaging evaluation of the heated debate on Afropolitanism and what constitutes an Afropolitan, the authors turn to literature and its intrinsic capacity for unfolding the human figure of the African as inherently complex and multidimensional. Through a detailed probing of the Afropolitan in literary narratives, the book enters into conversations about self-understanding and the signification of Africa in the contexts of global mobility. The book conceives of Afropolitanism as a flexible space of inquiry that curbs the inclination to set the definition of the ‘ism’ in stone. Instead, it attempts to distil, through close-up character analyses, a multifarious sense of what it means to be Afropolitan in the contemporary moment. In that sense, the encounters we come across in the literary narratives produce unexpected ontological negotiations on what it means to be African in the world today. As a special feature of In Search of the Afropolitan, the authors’ conversations with prominent writers, thinkers, and critics provide a lively context for the ongoing debate on Afropolitanism and the Afropolitan.

In Search of the Afropolitan explores human encounters and moments that speak to the challenges of being a 21st century African of the world. Against the background of an engaging evaluation of the heated debate on Afropolitanism and what constitutes an Afropolitan, the authors turn to literature and its intrinsic capacity for unfolding the human figure of the African as inherently complex and multidimensional. Through a detailed probing of the Afropolitan in literary narratives, the book enters into conversations about self-understanding and the signification of Africa in the contexts of global mobility. The book conceives of Afropolitanism as a flexible space of inquiry that curbs the inclination to set the definition of the ‘ism’ in stone. Instead, it attempts to distil, through close-up character analyses, a multifarious sense of what it means to be Afropolitan in the contemporary moment. In that sense, the encounters we come across in the literary narratives produce unexpected ontological negotiations on what it means to be African in the world today. As a special feature of In Search of the Afropolitan, the authors’ conversations with prominent writers, thinkers, and critics provide a lively context for the ongoing debate on Afropolitanism and the Afropolitan.

This introduction to British society and culture is a joint venture between Danish and Norwegian writers. The focus is on understanding the main features of contemporary British society through discussions of political, historical and cultural processes. The book Modern Britain is primarily aimed at Scandinavian students of English and students engaged in the study of the cultures and histories of the British Isles. It may be used as a set text for foundation and Bachelor level students of British culture, civilisation, history and social sciences. Important topics:The Union and British identities Social cohesion Politics Britain in the world Multicultural Britain