Cosmopolitan Novel, The

Description:
While traditionally the novel has been seen as tracking the development of the nation state, Schoene queries if globalisation might currently be prompting the emergence of a new sub-genre of the novel that is adept at imagining global community. The book introduces a new generation of contemporary British writers (Rachel Cusk, Kiran Desai, Hari Kunzru, Jon McGregor and David Mitchell) whose work is read against that of established novelists Arundhati Roy, James Kelman and Ian McEwan. Each chapter explores a different theoretical key concept, including 'glocality', 'glomicity', 'tour du monde', 'connectivity' and 'compearance'. Key Features: * Defines the new genre of the 'cosmopolitan novel' by reading contemporary British fiction as responsive to new global socio-economic formations * Expands knowledge of world culture, national identity, literary creativity and political agency by introducing concepts from globalisation and cosmopolitan theory into literary studies * Explores debates on Britishness and 'the contemporary' with close reference to the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9/11/1989 and the World Trade Centre attacks on 11/9/2001 * Introduces a new generation of British writers within a complex global context by drawing on Jean-Luc Nancy's work on community and creative world-formation

Review:
The Cosmopolitan Novel offers what is - to my mind - the best explanation to date for the continuing success of British fiction. Boldly counterintuitive and always intelligent, this book forces us to consider how contemporary fiction might be refiguring the modern subject for the twenty-first century and whether, in doing so, it also continues the novel's generic mission of 'mimicking the world'. -- Professor Nancy Armstrong, Duke University Berthold Schoene offers us a refreshing look at creative world-making in the contemporary cosmopolitan novel. Schoene's elegant readings - of pre-canonical and better-known writers - establish a cosmopolitan tradition that effectively disaggregates common conceptions of the monolithic 'West.' The reach of this work is ambitious; yet Schoene carries off an eminently convincing argument, provocative in its incitements for future literary studies of global culture. -- Professor Bishnupriya Ghosh, University of California at Santa Barbara The Cosmopolitan Novel offers what is - to my mind - the best explanation to date for the continuing success of British fiction. Boldly counterintuitive and always intelligent, this book forces us to consider how contemporary fiction might be refiguring the modern subject for the twenty-first century and whether, in doing so, it also continues the novel's generic mission of 'mimicking the world'. Berthold Schoene offers us a refreshing look at creative world-making in the contemporary cosmopolitan novel. Schoene's elegant readings - of pre-canonical and better-known writers - establish a cosmopolitan tradition that effectively disaggregates common conceptions of the monolithic 'West.' The reach of this work is ambitious; yet Schoene carries off an eminently convincing argument, provocative in its incitements for future literary studies of global culture.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; I. IMAGINING COSMOPOLITICS: 1. Families against the world: Ian McEwan; 2. James Kelman's cosmopolitan jeremiads; II. TOUR DU MONDE: 3. The world begins its turn with you, or how David Mitchell's novels think; III. CREATING THE WORLD: 4. Global noise: Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Hari Kunzru; 5. Suburban worlds: Rachel Cusk and Jon McGregor; Coda: the cosmopolitan imagination; Bibliography.

Author Biography:
Berthold Schoene is Professor of English and Director of the English Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is the editor of The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature (EUP, 2007) and author of The Cosmopolitan Novel (EUP, 2009) and Writing Men (EUP, 2000).