this volume in the Critical Insights series addresses the theme of cultural encounters in literature through a diverse set of texts and through multiple methodologies. For readers who are studying the theme for the first time, four essays survey the critical conversation regarding the theme, explore its cultural and historical contexts, and offer close and comparative readings of key texts containing the theme. Readers seeking a deeper understanding of the theme can then move on to other essays that explore it in depth through a variety of critical approaches. Classic works discussed include The Tempest, Robinson Crusoe, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Native Son and selections from the poetry of William Butler Yates and Seamus Heaney. And some of the contemporary works discussed are Brick Lane, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and Omeros.

On cultural encounters -- Critical contexts. Postcolonialism: origins, methodologies, receptions -- Postcolonialism: social and historical contexts -- A thousand splendid suns: sanctuary and resistance -- Identity and popular culture in Toni Morrison's The bluest eye and Junot Di´az's The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao -- Critical readings. Island noises: sound imprints of the cultural encounters in Shakespeare's The tempest -- Crusoe's empire -- American or postcolonial studies?: The last of the Mohicans on the frontiers of nation, colony, and empire -- A passage to India, national identity, and Forster's "others" -- The formal artistry of Richard Wright's Native son -- Cultural contact, modernization, and imperialism in One hundred years of solitude -- In the shadow of Yeats: tradition, reaction, and renewal -- Derek Walcott and the idea of postcolonial globalization -- Representing the self: Ntozake Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf -- The limits of culture and community in Monica Ali's Brick lane -- Obscured by history: language, culture, and conflict in Chinua Achebe's Things fall apart and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half a yellow sun.