This book presents a state-of-the-art overview of the relationship between globalization studies and literature and literary studies, and the bearing that they have on each other. It engages with the manner in which globalization is thematized in literary works, examines the relationship between globalization theory and literary theory, and discusses the impact of globalization processes on the production and reception of literary texts. Suman Gupta argues that, while literature has registered globalization processes in relevant ways, there has been a missed articulation between globalization studies and literary studies. Examples are given of some of the ways in which this slippage is now being addressed and may be taken forward, taking up such themes as the manner in which anti-globalization protests and world cities have figured in literary works; the ways in which theories of postmodernism and postcolonialism, familiar in literary studies, have diverged from and converged with globalization studies; and how industries to do with the circulation of literature are becoming globalized. This book is intended for university-level students and teachers, researchers, and other informed readers with an interest in the above issues, and serves as both a survey of the field and an intervention within it.
This book provides a history of the way in which literature not only reflects, but actively shapes processes of globalization and our notions of global phenomena. It takes in a broad sweep of history, from antiquity, through to the era of imperialism and on to the present day. Whilst its primary focus is our own historical conjuncture, it looks at how earlier periods have shaped this by tracking key concepts that are imbricated with the concept of globalization, from translation, to empire, to pandemics and environmental collapse. Drawing on these older themes and concerns, it then traces the germ of the relation between global phenomena and literary studies into the 20th and 21st centuries, exploring key issues and frames of study such as contemporary slavery, the digital, world literature and the Anthropocene.
Focuses on the influence of multiculturalism as a concept transforming literary and cultural studies. This book offers a comprehensive survey of comparative criticism in the 1990s. It demonstrates that comparative critical strategies can provide insights into the world's changing, and increasingly colliding, cultures.
"[I] wonder how we have managed without such a text."- Rita Raley, UCSB, USA This groundbreaking reader is the first to chart significant moments in the emergence of contemporary thinking about globalization and explore their significance for and impact on literary studies.
Immigrant Fictions is a groundbreaking collection that brings together studies of world literature, book history, narrative theory, and the contemporary novel to challenge methods of critical reading based on national models of literary culture. Contributors suggest that contemporary novels by immigrant writers need to be read across several geographies of production, circulation, and translation. Analyzing work by David Peace, George Lamming, Caryl Phillips, Iva Pekarkova, Yan Geling, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Anchee Min, and Monica Ali, these essays take up a range of critical topics, including the transnational book and the migrant writer, the comparative reception history of postcolonial fiction, transnational criticism and Asian-American literature in the U. S., mobility and feminism in translation, linguistic mediation and immigrating fictions, migration and the politics of narrative form.
Globalization, the concept used to account for the multitude of linkages, interconnections and interdependences that currently transcend territorial and sociocultural boundaries in the world, has been in the centre of continual controversy over its meaning, scope, intensity and social significance for post-modern societies. However, whether considered from the narrow angle of current socio-economic developments, or from the broad perspective of evolutionary processes straddling all spheres of life, globalization is generally acknowledged to refer to a complex set of processes of modernization, technologization, liberalization and integration operationalized through language and in a language shared by all those involved. For a number of geo-historical, socio-political, economic and technological reasons the language that has firmly established itself as the language of international communication is English. As a result, Global English takes a primary place in discussions of the effect of globalization on world societies and culture. The volume Globalization in English Studies addresses the issue of how globalization impacts upon culture, literature, language communication and language learning and use policies, which are taken to constitute the multiplex disciplinary space of English Studies. Written by authors with different language, cultural and theoretical backgrounds, this collection of eleven chapters throws light on how “global” and “local” entities are subtly intertwined, refashioned and rescaled in different geo-political and sociocultural contexts. The book is divided into four parts: The first part, Globalization in Culture, dwells upon the effects of globalization in particular cultural domains and the institutional attempts in some countries at reducing its negative consequences for local practices. The second part, Globalization in Literature, examines the impact of global integration processes on social life. In particular, it focuses on new developments as the “hybridization” and “technologization” of societies that tend to wipe out borders traditionally taken as reference points in building identity and a sense of belonging. The third part, Globalization in Language Communication, focuses on intercultural communication and the opportunities different multi-modal settings offer for the the realisation of intertextuality and interdiscursivity. Of particular interest is how local people select, appropriate , and creatively utilize cultural entities designed for global consumption to make them appear as their “own”. The last part, Global English and English Language Teaching/ Learning Policy, approaches the issue from a pedagogical perspective and examines the changes that globalization has caused for learners, learning environments and ways of speaking. Ranging over a variety of domains subsumed within English Studies, this collection of studies can serve as a good base for the cross-disciplinary synergy of ideas and fruitful debate among scholars and practitioners with a vested interest in Global English.
A powerful case for the global market economy The debate on globalization has reached a level of intensity that inhibits comprehension and obscures the issues. In this book a highly distinguished international economist scrupulously explains how globalization works as a concept and how it operates in reality. Martin Wolf confronts the charges against globalization, delivers a devastating critique of each, and offers a realistic scenario for economic internationalism in the future. Wolf begins by outlining the history of the global economy in the twentieth century and explaining the mechanics of world trade. He dissects the agenda of globalization’s critics, and rebuts the arguments that it undermines sovereignty, weakens democracy, intensifies inequality, privileges the multinational corporation, and devastates the environment. The author persuasively defends the principles of international economic integration, arguing that the biggest obstacle to global economic progress has been the failure not of the market but of politics and government, in rich countries as well as poor. He examines the threat that terrorism poses and maps the way to a global market economy that can work for everyone.
"Illuminating." - The New York Times Book Review Named one of "Ten Books to Read this April" by the BBC What is the future of fiction in an age of globalization? In The Global Novel, acclaimed literary critic Adam Kirsch explores some of the 21st century's best-known writers--including Orhan Pamuk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Mohsin Hamid, Margaret Atwood, Haruki Murakami, Roberto Bolano, Elena Ferrante, and Michel Houellebecq. They are employing a way of imagining the world that sees different places and peoples as intimately connected. From climate change and sex trafficking to religious fundamentalism and genetic engineering, today's novelists use 21st-century subjects to address the perennial concerns of fiction, like morality, society, and love. The global novel is not the bland, deracinated, commercial product that many critics of world literature have accused it of being, but rather finds a way to renew the writer's ancient privilege of examining what it means to be human.
A pervasive force, globalization has come to represent the export and import of culture, the speed and intensity of which has increased to unprecedented levels in recent years. Here an international panel of intellectuals consider the process of globalization and how the global character of technology, communication networks, consumer culture, intellectual discourse, the arts, and mass entertainment have all been affected by recent worldwide trends. Photos.
