The Global Anglophone Novel in the Twenty-First Century: Authors, Readers, Institutions

Abstract

My dissertation considers specific forms of authorship and the novel produced amid the changes to technology, reading, and audience/author relationships in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Synthesizing several threads of analysis—including postcolonial approaches to twenty-first century novels, explorations of authorship in literary and media studies, and growing attention throughout literary studies to global anglophone as a conceptual framework—I examine the contemporary global anglophone novel form through analyses of four authors who have global biographies, international cultural capital, and a thematically and structurally global body of work. Through analyses of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Kamila Shamsie, Zadie Smith, and Bernardine Evaristo’s novels, media coverage, and other writings, I highlight the ways the contemporary global anglophone novel reflects and responds to the changing sociohistorical and cultural contexts of the twenty-first century. I demonstrate that the paratextual function of an author, their brand or reputation, is a key node in determining the value and circulation of the global anglophone novel because it acts as a site of connection between global authors, readers, novels, and institutions. As the global anglophone endures and develops as a critical category, work is needed to better outline its contours. In this dissertation, I work to illustrate one possible approach to building an understanding of the global anglophone through attention to its theorizations and articulations in the literature and author figures it produces.