A major historical phenomenon of our century, exile has been a focal point for reflections about individual and cultural identity and problems of nationalism, racism, and war. This book contains essays that range chronologically from the Renaissance to the 1990s, and geographically from the Danube to the Andes.

"This is a rich and thought-provoking collection of essays about a subject of almost inexhaustible interest: exile as both a physical state and a state of mind, entailing both loss (of homeland, continuity, tradition) and gain (of new experiences, new ideas, new languages). These aspects of exile, which have made it so often a stimulus to writers and artists, are explored here in a fascinating variety of contexts and perspectives, and the collection as a whole maintains a nice balance between personal witness and objective scholarship."--David Lodge