Toward the Geopolitical Novel - U.s. Fiction in the Twenty-First Century

A survey of more than 125 works illuminate the resurgence of the American political novel in the twenty-first century. Caren Irr follows Junot Diaz, Helon Habila, Aleksandar Hemon, Hari Kunzru, Dinaw Mengestu, Daniyal Mueenuddin, Norman Rush, Gary Shteyngart, and others as they rethink the migration narrative, the Peace Corps thriller, the national allegory, the revolutionary novel, and the expatriate's experience with self-discovery. Taken together, these innovations define a new literary form: the geopolitical novel. More cosmopolitan and socially critical than domestic realism, the genre tests American liberalism and explores how in-migration, out-migration, the nation, revolution, and the traveling subject should be retooled for a new century.

List of contents

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Resurgence of the Political Novel1. From Routes to Routers: The Digital Migrant Novel2. The Anxious American: Political Thrillers and the Peace Corps Fugue3. Neoliberal Allegories: The Space of Home in Contemporary International Fiction4. Ideology, Terror, and Apocalypse: The New Novel of Revolution5. Toward the World Novel: Genre Shifts in Twenty-First-Century Expatriate FictionNotesPrimary WorksBibliographyIndex

About the author

Caren Irr is professor of English at Brandeis University.

Product details

• Authors: Caren Irr, Irr, Caren Irr, Caren (Brandeis University) Irr, Irr Caren
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 17.12.2013
• EAN: 9780231164405
• ISBN: 978-0-231-16440-5
• No. of pages: 280
• Series: Literature Now; Literature Now
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, English, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, United States of America, USA, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, LITERARY CRITICISM / Novel as Form