Contemporary American Literature as World Literature: Cruel Cosmopolitanism, Cosmopoetics, and the Search for a Worldlier American Novel
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Berthold Schoene
Abstract
With reference to Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010), Amy Waldman’s The Submission (2011) and Teju Cole’s Open City (2011), the first two parts of the article attempt a reappraisal of contemporary American literature’s world-literary potential by problematizing cosmopolitanism and neoliberal globalization in close relation to 9/11, the ideal of American multiculture and non-American assertions of alterity. Introducing Lauren Berlant’s Cruel Optimism (2011) and Mitchum Huehls’ After Critique (2016), the third part then shifts its focus onto the crisis of the neoliberal condition as lived in America today. Rather than insisting merely on thematic and demographic reprioritization, Berlant and Huehls are shown to strike at the very core of the literary and the human, exposing the ‘cruelty’ of both the novel and cosmopolitanism as residual expressions of a now anachronistic and ultimately harmful optimism regarding national cohesion and global understanding. The article concludes its search for a worldlier, more cosmopoetic American novel with an analysis of George Saunders’ short story collection Tenth of December (2013).
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© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Anglophone World Literatures: Introduction
- Postcolonial Worlds and Translation
- For ‘Global Literature’, Anglo-Phone
- Changing Spaces: Canonization of Anglophone World Literature
- New York, Capital of World Literature? On Holocaust Memory and World Literary Value
- Contemporary American Literature as World Literature: Cruel Cosmopolitanism, Cosmopoetics, and the Search for a Worldlier American Novel
- Ngugi wa Thiong’o and the Conceptual Worlding of Literature
- Indian Writing in English and the Discrepant Zones of World Literature
- Caribbean Spaces and Anglophone World Literatures
- Celebrating Afropolitan Identities? Contemporary African World Literatures in English
- Reviews
- Michael Klotz and Thomas Herbst. English Dictionaries: A Linguistic Introduction. Grundlagen der Anglistik und Amerikanistik 41. Berlin: Schmidt, 2016, 287 pp., € 19.95.
- Jonathan Davis-Secord. Joinings: Compound Words in Old English Literature. Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series 20. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016, xi + 245 pp., $ 65.00.
- John F. Vickrey. Genesis B and the Comedic Imperative. Maryland, MD: Lehigh University Press, 2015, xii + 325 pp., $ 85.00.
- Cecilia A. Hatt. God and the Gawain-Poet: Theology and Genre in Pearl, Cleanness, Patience and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Cambridge: Brewer, 2015, x + 249 pp., £ 60.00.
- Anne Hudson. Doctors in English: A Study of the Wycliffite Gospel Commentaries. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2015, cliv + 116 pp., 5 figures, £ 75.00.
- Nicholas Perkins (ed.). Medieval Romance and Material Culture. Cambridge: Brewer, 2015, xiv + 285 pp., 37 illustr., £ 60.00.
- Dieter Henrich. Sein oder Nichts: Erkundungen um Samuel Beckett und Hölderlin. München: C. H. Beck, 2016, 493 pp., € 39.95.
- Vera Nünning. Reading Fictions, Changing Minds: The Cognitive Value of Fiction. Schriften des Marsilius-Kollegs 11. Heidelberg: Winter, 2014, 343 pp., € 45.00.
- Caroline Lusin (ed.). Empathie, Sympathie und Narration: Strategien der Rezeptionslenkung in Prosa, Drama und Film. Anglistische Forschungen 450. Heidelberg: Winter, 2014, 234 pp., € 40.00.
- Derek Attridge. The Work of Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, 320 pp., £ 35.00.
- Marie-Luise Egbert (ed.). The Life of Birds in Literature. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2015, 182 pp., € 23.00.
- Heike Paul. The Myths That Made America: An Introduction to American Studies. Bielefeld: transcript, 2014, 456 pp., € 24.99.
- Johanna Hartmann, Christine Marks and Hubert Zapf (eds.). Zones of Focused Ambiguity in Siri Hustvedt’s Works: Interdisciplinary Essays. Buchreihe der Anglia/Anglia Book Series 52. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2016, vii + 425 pp., € 99.95/£ 74.99/$ 140.00.
- Books Received
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Anglophone World Literatures: Introduction
- Postcolonial Worlds and Translation
- For ‘Global Literature’, Anglo-Phone
- Changing Spaces: Canonization of Anglophone World Literature
- New York, Capital of World Literature? On Holocaust Memory and World Literary Value
- Contemporary American Literature as World Literature: Cruel Cosmopolitanism, Cosmopoetics, and the Search for a Worldlier American Novel
- Ngugi wa Thiong’o and the Conceptual Worlding of Literature
- Indian Writing in English and the Discrepant Zones of World Literature
- Caribbean Spaces and Anglophone World Literatures
- Celebrating Afropolitan Identities? Contemporary African World Literatures in English
- Reviews
- Michael Klotz and Thomas Herbst. English Dictionaries: A Linguistic Introduction. Grundlagen der Anglistik und Amerikanistik 41. Berlin: Schmidt, 2016, 287 pp., € 19.95.
- Jonathan Davis-Secord. Joinings: Compound Words in Old English Literature. Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series 20. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016, xi + 245 pp., $ 65.00.
- John F. Vickrey. Genesis B and the Comedic Imperative. Maryland, MD: Lehigh University Press, 2015, xii + 325 pp., $ 85.00.
- Cecilia A. Hatt. God and the Gawain-Poet: Theology and Genre in Pearl, Cleanness, Patience and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Cambridge: Brewer, 2015, x + 249 pp., £ 60.00.
- Anne Hudson. Doctors in English: A Study of the Wycliffite Gospel Commentaries. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2015, cliv + 116 pp., 5 figures, £ 75.00.
- Nicholas Perkins (ed.). Medieval Romance and Material Culture. Cambridge: Brewer, 2015, xiv + 285 pp., 37 illustr., £ 60.00.
- Dieter Henrich. Sein oder Nichts: Erkundungen um Samuel Beckett und Hölderlin. München: C. H. Beck, 2016, 493 pp., € 39.95.
- Vera Nünning. Reading Fictions, Changing Minds: The Cognitive Value of Fiction. Schriften des Marsilius-Kollegs 11. Heidelberg: Winter, 2014, 343 pp., € 45.00.
- Caroline Lusin (ed.). Empathie, Sympathie und Narration: Strategien der Rezeptionslenkung in Prosa, Drama und Film. Anglistische Forschungen 450. Heidelberg: Winter, 2014, 234 pp., € 40.00.
- Derek Attridge. The Work of Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, 320 pp., £ 35.00.
- Marie-Luise Egbert (ed.). The Life of Birds in Literature. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2015, 182 pp., € 23.00.
- Heike Paul. The Myths That Made America: An Introduction to American Studies. Bielefeld: transcript, 2014, 456 pp., € 24.99.
- Johanna Hartmann, Christine Marks and Hubert Zapf (eds.). Zones of Focused Ambiguity in Siri Hustvedt’s Works: Interdisciplinary Essays. Buchreihe der Anglia/Anglia Book Series 52. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2016, vii + 425 pp., € 99.95/£ 74.99/$ 140.00.
- Books Received
