Cosmopolitanism in contemporary British fiction
Subtitle: imagined identities
By: Fiona McCulloch
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 206
ISBN-13: 9780230234772
Subjects: Cosmopolitanism in literature; History and criticism; English fiction
Description: Cosmopolitanism in Contemporary British Fiction: Imagined Identities is a concise, lively and engaging analysis of contemporary literature viewed through the critical lens of cosmopolitan theory. It covers a wide spectrum of theoretical issues including globalisation, cosmopolitanism, nationhood, identity, philosophical nomadism, posthumanism, climate change, devolution and love. Texts discussed include those by Zoe Strachan, Philip Pullman, Jeanette Winterson, Nadeem Aslam, Ali Smith, and David Mitchell, to which original, compelling and persuasive readings are applied. Considerations of identity and nation, including gender, sexuality and social class are applied to the close readings in order to open up the textual possibilities and pleasures for the critical reader. It follows a new direction in literary criticism by demonstrating ways in which contemporary fiction is offering a response to planetary rather than national or postcolonial issues and, by doing so, is encompassing an ethical as well as political cosmopolitanism that seeks to connect citizens within a humanitarian and environmental global community.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Cross that bridge: Journeying through Zoe Strachan's Negative space; title: Boundaries. Desire: Philosophical nomadism in The powerbook and The stone gods; title: Fellow humans: Cosmopolitan citizens in Nadeem Aslam's Maps for lost lovers; title: The bridge to the stars: Travelling home in His dark materials; title: Around we go: Transpositional life cycles in David Mitchell's Cloud atlas; title: Remember you must live. Remember you most love. Remember you must leave: Passing through Ali Smith's Hotel world.