THE POETICS OF CROSS‐CULTURAL NEGOTIATION

Abstract

This paper examines the question of representing cultural otherness in relation to Asian diasporic poetry. Since western cultural exoticism has developed a global epistemological frame in which Asian cultural identities are often preconditioned to express western perspectives, Asian diasporic poets have to represent their cultural differences in new ways, disrupting the existing paradigm of interpretation and power relations. What Asian diasporic poetry shows is an interrogative mode of cross‐cultural negotiation in which various ideological appropriations and cross‐cultural exoticizations are dislocated from their original meanings to take on new implications.

Keywords:

• Asian diasporic poetry
• cross‐cultural negotiation
• deterritorialization
• exoticism
• representation
• epistemology

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Benzi Zhang

Benzi Zhang is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has published extensively on Asian diasporic literature, cross‐cultural studies and comparative literature.