Cosmopolitanism and Place: Spatial Forms in Contemporary Anglophone Literature(Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies)

Cosmopolitanism and Place considers the way contemporary Anglophone fiction connects global identities with the experience of living in specific local places. Looking at fiction set in metropolises, regional cities, and rural communities, Emily Johansen argues that the everyday experience of these places produces forms of global connection that emphasize social justice. Bringing together cosmopolitan and cultural geographical discourses, this timely book enables us to re-imagine what it means to be a citizen of the world.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. Alternative Cosmopolitanisms in the Metropolis 2. Cosmopolitan Work in the Regional City 3. Cosmopolitanism in Rural Places Conclusion Works Cited

About the Author :
Emily Johansen is Assistant Professor of English at Texas A&M University, USA. Her articles address the question of cosmopolitan responsibility and the everyday nature of globalization and have appeared in Canadian Literature, Postcolonial Text, Politics and Culture, ARIEL, and the Journal of Postcolonial Writing.

Review :
"Johansen shows that the conventional wisdom equating cosmopolitanism with metropolitan life occludes other less urban locales where worldliness thrives. This intervention is smart, timely, and most exciting when it focuses on the weird species called the regional city and that ostensibly less cosmopolitan realm, the country. By reimagining the geography of cosmopolitanism, Johansen gives the concept a much needed reboot." - John Marx, Professor of English, University of California, Davis, USA "Cosmopolitanism and Place: Spatial Forms in Contemporary Anglophone Literature offers a cogent defense of the value of cosmopolitanism in the contemporary moment. This is the book to read if you want to understand how global feeling is being recast by Anglophone writers today as an extension rather than a refutation of local habits of everyday life. Johansen takes us into the streets of the metropole, the networks of the regional city, and the byways of rural spaces to show us the multiple territories and tactics of cosmopolitan experience. This is an important and compelling addition both to the long critical history of literary cosmopolitanism and to our increasing understanding of the geopolitics of place in a globalizing world." - Jessica Berman, Professor of English, The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), US