Toward the Geopolitical Novel

Toward the Geopolitical Novel is an original, frequently brilliant, and indefatigably learned book. It will make a vital contribution to the understanding of contemporary literary fiction in the United States and of twentieth- and twenty-first-century American literature more generally. -- Sean McCann, author of Gumshoe America: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism Toward the Geopolitical Novel is lucidly conceived and forcefully argued, ranging across a formidable spectrum of writers to set a new agenda for understanding the contemporary novel. Caren Irr provokes fresh discussions about the critical and cultural horizons of the novel since 2000, enabling us to chart how historical fiction has developed formally after postmodernism. -- David James, author of Modernist Futures: Innovation and Inheritance in the Contemporary Novel Irr has written a superb study, one that contributes greatly to our appreciation of the new dimensions of contemporary U.S. fiction. Perhaps the most exciting aspect lies in Irr's willingness to conceive of her subject, not on the basis of a handful of texts, but on a voluminous array of novels. The historical nuance and theoretical edge of this broadly based inquiry exhibit both her grasp of interpretative subtleties and her luminous powers of synthesis. It is simply the best book we have yet on the literature of this century. -- Gordon Hutner, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign No comparable volume exists... Highly recommended. Choice Combining theory, socio-institutional analysis, and the sheer magnitude of a survey, she maks a convincing case that U.S. fiction is in fact becoming more worldly in the twenty-first century, and more political as well... Covers a dizzying amount of ground... Contemporary Literature Toward the Geopolitical Novel represents a major achievement, and it will undoubtedly become required reading for scholars of twenty-first century American literature. -- Robert T. Tally Jr. American Book Review Richly informative and nuanced. -- Jerry Varsava Studies in the Novel Persuasive and insightful, this text will be useful to established academics in American literary studies, in addition to researchers of contemporary American fiction, postcolonial fiction, and globalization. -- Daniel Mattingly Journal of American Studies