ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the way in which cultural experience and competence can be carried from one location to another. In all cases, every one of the characters has shared underlying universal cultural processes regardless of whether they are newcomers or original residents of the settings involved. K. Shamsie's novel Burnt shadows is the story of an intensely modern Japanese woman's cultural travel from surviving the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki to integrate deeply with Pakistani society and then with US society. The several narratives exemplify how cultural travel can result in innovation. Implicit in carrying cultural experience from one place to another is the notion of cultural change and innovation. Contestation is a normal part of cultural change and innovation. Contestation, rejection or acceptance, can derive from deeper ideological factors. Everyone has an equal potential for cosmopolitanism. However, this cosmopolitan context brings practices from different cultural environments into a juxtaposition which might lead to contestation.
