Introduction: Novel Beyond Nation

Abstract

"what can this persistence of the novel beyond nationalism tell us about the novel in times of nationalism and, conversely, about the nationalism in times of the novel? Does the transition from nationalism to identity politics imply a transition within the history of the novel itself, or does the continuing centrality of the novel imply a continuation of nationalism within identity politics? Or is there perhaps time to return to Benedict Anderson and to rethink his groundbreaking framing of nationalism in the newspaper and the novel? Is the novel perhaps the genre not of nationalism, but of capitalist modernity itself? These are some of the questions addressed by the contributors to this volume."