Fictions of Globalization: Consumption, the Market and the Contemporary American Novel (Continuum Literary Studies)

Interpreting recent American fiction in terms linked to the growing appreciation of culture's place in the globalization debate, this book offers an innovative, critical approach to the study of contemporary literature. Prompted by the contemporary American novel's preoccupation with consumerism and the market, this book considers the implications these texts raise for the analysis of globalization and suggests that they offer unique ways of knowing and understanding contemporary social and economic contexts. Far from simply reflecting existing realities, The Fictions of Globalization reads contemporary writing's focus on consumption and the market as the sign of a productive exchange between the forces of commercial coordination and the enduringly creative and expressive patterns of modern culture.