This book brings together the proceedings of the International Conference entitled 'The Goddess Awakened: Partnership Studies in Education and World Literatures in English' (University of Udine 19-22 April 2007), which hosted internationally renowned writers and scholars in Education and Language Studies, from Italy, Australia, India, South Africa and the United States of America. It combines partnership epistemological models with postcolonial literary criticism, thus creating methodological connections with non-binary and inter/multi-disciplinary cultural paradigms. Its main focus of attention is on the 'archetypical' sources of texts, especially in relation to stories or 'narrations' related to the Goddess figure, metaphor of a more caring and eco-sustainable vision of life. The book investigates the persistence of the ancient Triune Goddess and of other feminine archetypes, prototypical energy present in our past and present traditions, in two periods regarded as specular and conceptually linked: contemporary literatures in English (Australian, Indian, Canadian, South African, West-Indian) and Renaissance/Late Renaissance British literature. The awakening of the Goddess is also celebrated in the arts: poetry, drama, narrative, dance, and a photographic and sculptural exhibition of the Sacred Feminine, which can be enjoyed both in the book itself and in the two accompanying DVDs (publisher website).
