ABSTRACT
Literature has the capacity to foster a cosmopolitan consciousness not only by providing insights into the lived experiences of others from diverse cultures, but also by offering diverse vantage points from which to imagine the global. One of the central imperatives of our time is to envision what it means to live in a globalized world characterized by fluidity and movement of people, products and capital on the one hand, and the permeation of global injustices, ranging from terrorism to climate change, on the other. In “The Literature Teacher as Restless Cartographer,” we start from the premise that cosmopolitan pedagogies are determined first by an orientation that then directs praxis. We argue for the importance of cosmopolitan literature pedagogies that involve a reorientation in three areas: Approaching literature, not as a platform for enclosed readings, but as an invitational space for ethical encounters; nurturing the literature student, not as a reader with a tourist mindset, but one with an exilic imagination; and reorienting the literature teacher, not as cultural guardian, but as restless cartographer. Through such cosmopolitan literature pedagogies, readers have the potential to transcend space and time, explore beyond the familiar world, and become migrant, traveler, and person in exile through their imaginings, commitments, and actions.
