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Fiction is fascinating. All it provides us with is black letters on white pages, yet while we read we do not have the impression that we are merely perceiving abstract characters. Instead, we see the protagonists before our inner eye and hear their voices. Descriptions of sumptuous meals make our mouths water, we feel physically repelled by depictions of violence or are aroused by the erotic details of sexual conquests. We submerge ourselves in the fictional world that no longer stays on the paper but comes to life in our imagination. Reading turns into an out-of-the-body experience or, rather, an in-another-body experience, for we perceive the portrayed world not only through the protagonist's eyes but also through his ears, nose, tongue, and skin. In other words, we move through the literary text as if through a virtual reality. How does literature achieve this trick? How does it turn mere letters into vividly experienced worlds? This study argues that techniques of sensuous writing contribute decisively to bringing the text to life in the reader's imagination. In detailed interpretations of British novels of the 1980s and 1990s by writers such as John Berger, John Banville, Salman Rushdie, Jeanette Winterson, or J. M. Coetzee, it uncovers literary strategies for turning the sensuous experience into words and for conveying it to the reader, demonstrating how we make sense in, and of, literature. Both readers interested in the contemporary novel and in the sensuousness of the reading experience will profit from this innovative study that not only analyses the interest of contemporary authors in the senses but also pin-points literary entry points for the sensuous force of reading.

Englisch --- English fiction --- Roman --- History and criticism

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National identity is not some naturally given or metaphysically sanctioned racial or territorial essence that only needs to be conceptualised or spelt out in discursive texts; it emerges from, takes shape in, and is constantly defined and redefined in individual and collective performances. It is in performances—ranging from the scenarios of everyday interactions to ‘cultural performances’ such as pageants, festivals, political manifestations or sports, to the artistic performances of music, dance, theatre, literature, the visual and culinary arts and more recent media—that cultural identity and a sense of nationhood are fashioned. National identity is not an essence one is born with but something acquired in and through performances. Particularly important here are intercultural performances and transactions, and that not only in a colonial and postcolonial dimension, where such performative aspects have already been considered, but also in inner-European transactions. ‘Englishness’ or ‘Britishness’ and Italianità, the subject of this anthology, are staged both within each culture and, more importantly, in joint performances of difference across cultural borders. Performing difference highlights differences that ‘make a difference’; it ‘draws a line’ between self and other—boundary lines that are, however, constantly being redrawn and renegotiated, and remain instable and shifting.

Cross-cultural studies --- National characteristics, English --- National characteristics, Italian --- Cultural relations. --- Cross-cultural studies. --- National characteristics, English. --- National characteristics, Italian. --- Italian national characteristics --- Cultural exchange --- Intercultural relations --- Intellectual cooperation --- International relations --- Comparison of cultures --- Inter-cultural studies --- Intercultural studies --- Trans-cultural studies --- Transcultural studies --- Culture --- Ethnology --- Social sciences --- English national characteristics --- Methodology --- England. --- Italy. --- Italia --- Italian Republic --- Italianska republika --- Italʹi͡anskai͡a Rėspublika --- Italie --- Italien --- Italii͡ --- Italii͡a Respublikasi --- Italiĭsʹka Respublika --- Itālija --- Itālijas Republika --- Italijos Respublika --- Italikē Dēmokratia --- Īṭāliy --- Italiya Respublikasi --- It'allia --- It'allia Konghwaguk --- İtalya --- İtalya Cumhuriyeti --- Iṭalyah --- Iṭalye --- Itaria --- Itaria Kyōwakoku --- Jumhūrīyah al-Īṭālīyah --- Kgl. Italienische Regierung --- Königliche Italienische Regierung --- Laško --- Lýðveldið Ítalía --- Olasz Köztársaság --- Olaszország --- Regno d'Italia --- Repubblica italiana --- Republiḳah ha-Iṭalḳit --- Włochy --- Yidali --- Yidali Gongheguo --- Italy --- Angleterre --- Anglii͡ --- Anglija --- Engeland --- Inghilterra --- Inglaterra

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