Description
Book SynopsisDefines a transnational literary "zone" that shaped the development of the modern novel. This book rethinks the genre's evolution as marking the power and limits of modern cultural nationalism. It is suitable for readers interested in the novel's development, British and French cultural history, and extra-national patterns of cultural exchange.
Trade Review"This book powerfully argues that one can understand the long-term national traditions of the novel only by also understanding the long-term transnationality of the form. As a comparatist work, it intervenes to resituate the novel in the literary history of France and of England, and by doing this it also revises the overall history of the modern western novel. Building from some of the most challenging and valuable recent contributions to thinking about the novel as a modern form, it is at the cutting edge."
—Jonathan Arac, Columbia University"This collection makes important new arguments about the rise and development of the novel in England and France; it adds significantly to our understanding of the relation between national literatures and nation-building in the modern era. Together the essays amply demonstrate the importance of cross-national analysis for literary studies. The book is sure to have a major impact on scholarly discussions of the novel in Europe and America."
—Susan Maslan, University of California, BerkeleyTable of ContentsACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi Introduction by Margaret Cohen and Carolyn Dever 1 PART I: The Novel without Borders 35 CHAPTER ONE: Transnationalism and the Origins of the (French) Novel by Joan DeJean 37 CHAPTER TWO: National or Transnational? The Eighteenth-Century Novel 50 CHAPTER THREE: Sentimental Bonds and Revolutionary Characters: Richardson's Pamela in England and France by Lynn Festa 73 CHAPTER FOUR: Sentimental Communities by Margaret Cohen 106 CHAPTER FIVE: Transnational Sympathies, Imaginary Communities by April Slliston 133 PART II: Imaging the "Othered" Nation 149 CHAPTER SIX: Phantom States: Cleveland, The Recess and the Origins of Historical Fiction by Richard Maxwell 151 CHAPTER SEVEN: Gender, Empire, and Episolarity: FromJane Austen's Mansfeild Park to Marie-Therese Humbert's La montogue des Signaux by Francoise Lionnet 183 CHAPTER EIGHT: The (Dis)locations of Romantic Nationalism: Shelley, Stael, and the Home-Schooling of Monsters by Deidre Shauna Lunch 194 CHAPTER NINE: "An Occult and Immoral Tyranny": The Novel, the Police, and the Agent Provocateur by Carolyn Dever 225 CHAPTER TEN: Comparative Sapphism by Sharon marcus 251 AFTERWORD: From Literary Channel to Narrative Chunnel by Emily Apter 286 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 295 CONTRIBUTORS 303 INDEX 305
