On Common Ground: Translocal Attachments and Transethnic Affiliations in Agha Shahid Ali’s and Arthur Sze’s Poetry of the American Southwest
Combining insights from human geography, critical regionalism, and environmental literary criticism, I argue that the concept of the translocal, rather than the transnational, is useful to describe the complex poetics of place in Agha Shahid Ali’s A Nostalgist’s Map of America (1991) and Arthur Sze’...
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European Association for American Studies
2014-12-01
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| Series: | European Journal of American Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/10434 |
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| author | Judith Rauscher |
| author_facet | Judith Rauscher |
| author_sort | Judith Rauscher |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Combining insights from human geography, critical regionalism, and environmental literary criticism, I argue that the concept of the translocal, rather than the transnational, is useful to describe the complex poetics of place in Agha Shahid Ali’s A Nostalgist’s Map of America (1991) and Arthur Sze’s The Ginkgo Light (2009). Engaging with landscapes of the American Southwest and elsewhere, and in particular with the natural environment, both poets reimagine the region as a site of translocal attachments and as the grounds for transethnic affiliations, especially with local Native American peoples. What emerges from this inclusive and yet open sense of belonging to place is an ethics of being in and with nature that attempts to reckon with the increasing pressures of both globalization and global environmental crisis. Literature, as Ali’s and Sze’s poetry suggest by foregrounding poetic strategies like intertextuality and metaphorical language, plays a central role in the development of such an ecologically suggestive ethics of place in the context of migration and displacement. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1120f72d253e4b0882bf5228bf413013 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1991-9336 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2014-12-01 |
| publisher | European Association for American Studies |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Journal of American Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-1120f72d253e4b0882bf5228bf4130132025-01-06T09:10:19ZengEuropean Association for American StudiesEuropean Journal of American Studies1991-93362014-12-019310.4000/ejas.10434On Common Ground: Translocal Attachments and Transethnic Affiliations in Agha Shahid Ali’s and Arthur Sze’s Poetry of the American SouthwestJudith RauscherCombining insights from human geography, critical regionalism, and environmental literary criticism, I argue that the concept of the translocal, rather than the transnational, is useful to describe the complex poetics of place in Agha Shahid Ali’s A Nostalgist’s Map of America (1991) and Arthur Sze’s The Ginkgo Light (2009). Engaging with landscapes of the American Southwest and elsewhere, and in particular with the natural environment, both poets reimagine the region as a site of translocal attachments and as the grounds for transethnic affiliations, especially with local Native American peoples. What emerges from this inclusive and yet open sense of belonging to place is an ethics of being in and with nature that attempts to reckon with the increasing pressures of both globalization and global environmental crisis. Literature, as Ali’s and Sze’s poetry suggest by foregrounding poetic strategies like intertextuality and metaphorical language, plays a central role in the development of such an ecologically suggestive ethics of place in the context of migration and displacement.https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/10434Native American historyContemporary American poetryimmigrant literatureAgha Shahid AliArthur Szecritical regionalism |
| spellingShingle | Judith Rauscher On Common Ground: Translocal Attachments and Transethnic Affiliations in Agha Shahid Ali’s and Arthur Sze’s Poetry of the American Southwest European Journal of American Studies Native American history Contemporary American poetry immigrant literature Agha Shahid Ali Arthur Sze critical regionalism |
| title | On Common Ground: Translocal Attachments and Transethnic Affiliations in Agha Shahid Ali’s and Arthur Sze’s Poetry of the American Southwest |
| title_full | On Common Ground: Translocal Attachments and Transethnic Affiliations in Agha Shahid Ali’s and Arthur Sze’s Poetry of the American Southwest |
| title_fullStr | On Common Ground: Translocal Attachments and Transethnic Affiliations in Agha Shahid Ali’s and Arthur Sze’s Poetry of the American Southwest |
| title_full_unstemmed | On Common Ground: Translocal Attachments and Transethnic Affiliations in Agha Shahid Ali’s and Arthur Sze’s Poetry of the American Southwest |
| title_short | On Common Ground: Translocal Attachments and Transethnic Affiliations in Agha Shahid Ali’s and Arthur Sze’s Poetry of the American Southwest |
| title_sort | on common ground translocal attachments and transethnic affiliations in agha shahid ali s and arthur sze s poetry of the american southwest |
| topic | Native American history Contemporary American poetry immigrant literature Agha Shahid Ali Arthur Sze critical regionalism |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/10434 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT judithrauscher oncommongroundtranslocalattachmentsandtransethnicaffiliationsinaghashahidalisandarthurszespoetryoftheamericansouthwest |