The Cosmopolitan Novel

Abstract

While the novel has traditionally been seen as tracking the development of the nation state, the author of this book queries whether 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’. The book defines the new genre of the ‘cosmopolitan novel’ by reading contemporary British fiction as responsive to new global socio-economic formations. It expands knowledge of world culture, national identity, literary creativity and political agency by introducing concepts from globalisation and cosmopolitan theory. The book also explores debates on Britishness and ‘the contemporary’, with close reference to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the World Trade Centre attacks.

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