'Who am I?' The answer to this question is one of the most important issues a human being has to address in life. This is a question about possessing the continuous self, about the internal concept of oneself as an individual. The self-defining process, the discovery of the self takes place in the context of culture and society. The impact of social experience is felt across the whole life-span. Socialization exerted by parents, family and friends, acculturation to stereotypes and limited and limiting roles, inheritance of local identity and cultural myths, acknowledgement of the legacy of history contribute to the formation of poly-identity comprised of personal, racial, national, group or gender identities. Unity in Diversity; Cultural Paradigm and Personal Identity is a collection of essays by scholars of multicultural experience who, by employing different interpretative strategies indicative of their different backgrounds and interests, explore the issues of difference and otherness, inclusion/exclusion and of multiple ethnic, cultural, gender, and national identities. Offering literary, cultural, social, and historical perspectives the collection will be of interest to readers studying contemporary literature, (popular) culture, gender studies, sociology, and history.
About the Author: Julitta Rydlewska is Senior Lecturer and the former founding Head of the Department of English at the University of Szczecin. She holds a PhD in English Literature from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. In addition to teaching English literature to Polish students, she has edited several collective works and published several translations in the fields of psychology and history; her major books in translation include Leon Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance, and Ludy T. Benjamin's A Brief History of Modern Psychology. Barbara Braid is Assistant Lecturer at the English Department in Szczecin University, Poland. Her MA dissertation concerned the figure of woman in Jeanette Winterson's oeuvre, and she has published a number of articles and book chapters on neo-Victorian, lesbian and gothic literature in recent years. She is currently a PhD candidate at Opole University, Poland, working on a dissertation on the motifs of female madness in the Victorian and neo-Victorian novel.