Imagining Cultural Transfers -Poetics of Cultural Contact Circulation and ExchangeIntroductory
noteThe articles of the group session explore the dynamics of cultural exchangein literature
examining the circulation of narratives images concepts andideas travelling within and
beyond cultural boundaries on a global scale. Culturalexchange proves to be a powerful
stimulating agency of creative energyentailing a considerable transformative potential.
Moreover multiple forms ofcultural contact and transfer have been the object of individual and
collectiveimaginations in a contemporary as well as a historical perspective. They
constitutekey relationships at the very core of literary productions and artifacts inother
media. In this context the imaginative process of modeling and reflectingcultural transfer is
not restricted to the limits of physical contact and empiricalfactuality. Far from being
limited to mere exotism imaginings and aesthetic representationsof cultural contact play a
crucial part in the evolution of cultures.They may also for instance draw on oral as well as
recorded sources of myth folklore fantasy or even the phenomena of virtual reality.The panel's
contributions focus on the different imaginings of cultural transfersand their dynamics in
literary texts. They analyze the poetic and stylisticforms designed to express and capture the
cultural circulation of concepts images and experiences as well as their innovative and
transformative implications.(Translations for example play an important role in this
context.)Furthermore they may also reflect on the relation between notions of culturaltransfer
and comparative literature as an academic discipline. For example key terms of the discipline
such as 'world literature' can be questioned (e. g.the relevance of cross-cultural contacts for
the thinking of 'world literature'and examined in regard to their implicit evaluations (e. g.
the dominance of aWestern canon relationships between 'major' and 'minor' literatures).
