Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in Literary Studies

As the pace of cultural globalization accelerates, the discipline of literary studies is undergoing dramatic transformation. Scholars and critics focus increasingly on theorizing difference and complicating the geographical framework defining their approaches. At the same time, Anglophone literature is being created by a remarkably transnational, multicultural group of writers exploring many of the same concerns, including the intersecting effects of colonialism, decolonization, migration, and globalization.

Paul Jay surveys these developments, highlighting key debates within literary and cultural studies about the impact of globalization over the past two decades. Global Matters provides a concise, informative overview of theoretical, critical, and curricular issues driving the transnational turn in literary studies and how these issues have come to dominate contemporary global fiction as well. Through close, imaginative readings Jay analyzes the intersecting histories of colonialism, decolonization, and globalization engaged by an array of texts from Africa, Europe, South Asia, and the Americas, including Zadie Smith's White Teeth, Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss, Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, Vikram Chandra's Red Earth and Pouring Rain, Mohsin Hamid's Moth Smoke, and Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness. A timely intervention in the most exciting debates within literary studies, Global Matters is a comprehensive guide to the transnational nature of Anglophone literature today and its relationship to the globalization of Western culture.

1101576848
Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in Literary Studies

As the pace of cultural globalization accelerates, the discipline of literary studies is undergoing dramatic transformation. Scholars and critics focus increasingly on theorizing difference and complicating the geographical framework defining their approaches. At the same time, Anglophone literature is being created by a remarkably transnational, multicultural group of writers exploring many of the same concerns, including the intersecting effects of colonialism, decolonization, migration, and globalization.

Paul Jay surveys these developments, highlighting key debates within literary and cultural studies about the impact of globalization over the past two decades. Global Matters provides a concise, informative overview of theoretical, critical, and curricular issues driving the transnational turn in literary studies and how these issues have come to dominate contemporary global fiction as well. Through close, imaginative readings Jay analyzes the intersecting histories of colonialism, decolonization, and globalization engaged by an array of texts from Africa, Europe, South Asia, and the Americas, including Zadie Smith's White Teeth, Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss, Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, Vikram Chandra's Red Earth and Pouring Rain, Mohsin Hamid's Moth Smoke, and Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness. A timely intervention in the most exciting debates within literary studies, Global Matters is a comprehensive guide to the transnational nature of Anglophone literature today and its relationship to the globalization of Western culture.

21.99 In Stock
Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in Literary Studies

Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in Literary Studies

by Paul Jay
Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in Literary Studies

Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in Literary Studies

by Paul Jay

eBook

$21.99 

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

As the pace of cultural globalization accelerates, the discipline of literary studies is undergoing dramatic transformation. Scholars and critics focus increasingly on theorizing difference and complicating the geographical framework defining their approaches. At the same time, Anglophone literature is being created by a remarkably transnational, multicultural group of writers exploring many of the same concerns, including the intersecting effects of colonialism, decolonization, migration, and globalization.

Paul Jay surveys these developments, highlighting key debates within literary and cultural studies about the impact of globalization over the past two decades. Global Matters provides a concise, informative overview of theoretical, critical, and curricular issues driving the transnational turn in literary studies and how these issues have come to dominate contemporary global fiction as well. Through close, imaginative readings Jay analyzes the intersecting histories of colonialism, decolonization, and globalization engaged by an array of texts from Africa, Europe, South Asia, and the Americas, including Zadie Smith's White Teeth, Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss, Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, Vikram Chandra's Red Earth and Pouring Rain, Mohsin Hamid's Moth Smoke, and Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness. A timely intervention in the most exciting debates within literary studies, Global Matters is a comprehensive guide to the transnational nature of Anglophone literature today and its relationship to the globalization of Western culture.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780801470066
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication date: 02/15/2014
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 248
File size: 720 KB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Paul Jay is Professor of English at Loyola University Chicago. He is the author most recently of Contingency Blues: The Search for Foundations in American Criticism. Visit his blog for this book at jayglobalmatters.weebly.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Transnational Turn in Literary StudiesPart One: Globalization and the Study of Literature
1. Difference, Multiculturalism, and the Globalizing of Literary Studies
2. What Is Globalization?
3. Economies, Cultures, and the Politics of Globalization
4. Border Studies: Remapping the Locations of Literary StudyPart Two: Globalization in Contemporary Literature
5. Post–Postcolonial Writing in the Age of Globalization: The God of Small Things, Red Earth and Pouring Rain, Moth Smoke
6. Globalization and Nationalism in Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss
7. The Cultural Politics of Development in Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness
8. Multiculturalism and Identity in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth
9. Transnational Masculinities in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoConclusionNotes
Works Cited
Index

What People are Saying About This

Jahan Ramazani

In Global Matters, Paul Jay provides invaluable guidance to recent debates about globalization and illuminates the contemporary novel's vibrant transnationalism. This judicious and remarkably lucid book lays the ground for exciting new developments in transnational literary scholarship.

Bruce Robbins

Global Matters is a lucid and extremely valuable synthesis of some of the trickiest and most interesting scholarship of the past twenty years. Judicious yet also pleasantly polemical, and anchored in refreshing readings of some much-read texts, it will be the object of heartfelt gratitude on the part of students and teachers alike.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews