Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study examines the way in which contemporary anglophone novels from around the globe engage with the USA as a political entity and as a point of reference for individual and collective processes of identity formation and cultural exchange. The analytical perspective employed relies on a backdrop of globalization theory, of research on anti-Americanism, on conceptions of the performative and on stereotypes. In examining nine twenty-first-century novels, the author applies an adapted version of Obioma Nnaemeka’s concept of the ‘inoutsider’ and pays particular attention to narrative framing as well as to the novels’ political and historical con- and subtexts. The larger aim of the study is to promote a scholarly perspective that goes beyond the common distinction between English studies, American studies and the so-called ‘New English literatures’. The scholarly project is to help establish a disciplinary framework broadly defined as ‘globalized anglophone studies’. In addition to this, the study contributes to the ongoing debate around reformed notions of cosmopolitanism, subjecting the cosmopolitan perspective in literary studies to a critical rereading. Primary texts: Zadie Smith, On Beauty; Peter Carey, His Illegal Self; Imraan Coovadia, Green-Eyed Thieves; Salman Rushdie, Fury; Caryl Phillips, Dancing in the Dark; Chris Abani, The Virgin of Flames; Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist; Hari Kunzru, Transmission; DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little.
Author: Claudia Perner
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1606467797