While a vast range of works have been written on European identity from historical, cultural, political, sociological, and economic points of view, I am attempting to turn the discourse around and investigate the complex notion of European identity that forms the basis of personal, collective and societal identities represented in literature and a European space imagined and depicted differently by various writers. My thesis explores the diverse interpretations of Europe by creating and investigating a literary dialogue between some works in Hungarian and British contemporary literature and so, in a generalized sense, in some aspects between the Eastern and Western peripheries of Europe. The literary interpretation of Europe and European identity is a neglected research area, just as is the literary dialogue between the Western and the Eastern parts of the European Union. Due to this lack of exemplary methodological routes, the thesis’s comparative nature and the fact that it deals with the cultural positions and literary capitals of two very unequal countries, the methodological background is provided by world literary approaches. Widening the time-scale from the most recent works to ones published in the 1990’s and some even before the fall of the Iron Curtain presented the opportunity for analysing the dynamic character of British and Hungarian perceptions and the changing focus on prevalent themes. Imre Kertész (1929-2016) was primarily concerned by the formulation and articulation of new ethical and philosophical values for Europe emerging on the ethical zero ground of the Holocaust and focused on a detached, theoretical observation of the individual. Brian Aldiss (1925-2017) was more interested in the active and often contradictory aspects of identity and the practical moral dilemmas after the Wars in twentieth-century Europe. Marina Lewycka’s (1946-) novels deal with the European aspects of migration concerning the different generations and the gender dimensions of the Europe concept. László Végel (1941-) writes about the utopia of Europe as a multi-ethnic unity and explores the minority identity in relation to the migrant existence. Tim Parks (1954-) approaches the issues of fate and destiny, and their relevance to European politics and personal choices, while also investigating the possibility of linguistic schizophrenia. Gábor Németh’s (1956-) novels investigate the symbolism inherent in European Jewish identity and cosmopolitanism and the current attitudes on populism and anti-immigration. The perspective and the focus from which the novels are analysed have been influenced by present events, and the political, social and cultural atmosphere of both countries and the EU. I have been trying to spot signs which might have forecast the disillusionment and hostility felt towards the European dream by the majority of both populations. The disappointment over the dissolving vision of a united Europe has emerged as an overall theme connecting the writers’ works; however, the pressing want of free-spirits, the Nietzschean Good Europeans, has also been persistent.

Thesis advisor: Kalpana Seshadri / The novel is generally read through a Western lens that privileges both individual subjectivity and the nation-state. My dissertation acts as an intervention into the critical tradition that sees the novel as a genre preoccupied with the individual, the nation-state, and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship through which the two relate to each other. This tradition includes seminal theorists Ian Watt, Fredric Jameson, and Benedict Anderson as well as contemporary critics such as Pascale Casanova and Joseph Slaughter. Transnational Communities challenges this accepted framework for understanding the novel genre through an examination of novels which decenter the categories of individual and nation-state and argues that in this moment of unprecedented globalization, the novel’s ability to imagine new forms of community is an increasingly relevant social function. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English.

My title echoes Agha Shahid Ali’s sentiment of needing to move beyond the linguistic nationalism of “English” toward a more varied understanding of Anglophone writing within multiple contexts in the world. In three theoretical case studies from four linguistic and literary traditions (English, Bengali, Spanish, and Hindi-Urdu), I explore the dimensions and definitions of comparative Anglophone and world literature, comparative poetics, and a comparative study of novels – in the global postcolonial world. I focus on moments of translatability and untranslatability to question traditional models for studies in English and comparative literature that do not account for translation. Each of my chapters shows how texts in the “original” or “translation” do not always circulate from a homogenized metropolitan center to a marginalized periphery, and unlike in the elite North American and Parisian world where untranslatability often inspires terror and loss of language, translations can act as connecting forces that create organic dialogue in the global south on modernism and postcolonial discourses that go beyond Europe and America / text

abstract: This project examines different modes of cultural production from the postcolonial Anglophone world to identify how marginal populations have either been subjugated or empowered by various forms of consumerism. Four case studies specifically follow the flow of products, resources, and labor either in the colonies or London. In doing so, these investigations reveal how neocolonial systems both radiate from old imperial centers and occupy postcolonial countries. Using this method corroborates contemporary postcolonial theory positing that modern “Empire” is now amorphous and stateless rather than constrained to the metropole and colony. The temporal progression of each chapter traces how commodification and resource exploitation has evolved from colonial to contemporary periods. Each section of this study consequently considers geography and time to show how consumer culture grew via imperialism, yet also supported and challenged the progression of colonial conquest. Accordingly, as empire and consumerism have transformed alongside each other, so too have the tools that marginal groups use to fight against economic and cultural subjugation. Novels remain as one traditional format – and consumer product – that can resist the effects of colonization. Other contemporary postcolonial artists, however, use different forms of media to subvert or challenge modes of neocolonial oppression. Texts such as screenplays, low-budget films, memoirs, fashion subcultures, music videos, and advertisements illuminate how postcolonial groups represent themselves. Altogether, these various cultural productions illuminate how marginalized populations have used consumer products and practices to disrupt global economies that continue to profit from the commodification, appropriation, or subjugation of minority populations. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2018

The term world literature was coined almost 200 years ago and 100 years later it developed into a discipline within literary studies. This essay investigates several scholars’ ideas and suggested theories about the field, mainly from a European and North American perspective. World literature’s origin, development, and modern conceptions are presented and described. By passing on relevant information, the reader is given an overall understanding of world literature. One conclusion is that, although scholars sometimes disagree, there is an aim, and a possibility for a unanimous definition and approach of the discipline. Another conclusion is that assimilation of world literature can evoke respect and acceptance towards all people and all cultures, due to its all-inclusive, humanistic, and global essence. One finding from the analysis is that world literature is closely linked to globalization and other major changes in society. Another finding is that the field is defined by what is written, how it is read, and interpreted. It is also defined by what is included or excluded. There are some works that, due to high quality or local appreciation, belong in world literature’s sphere but, for various reasons, do not. Further finding shows that contributions circulate in multiple directions, often crossing over culture, language, and nation borders. World literature evolves and changes, sometimes because of readers’ choice and subjective value or disvalue of works which, as a consequence, form a discipline with variable characteristics. More findings from the analysis show that world literature holds both eternal qualities and contemporary values due to, for instance, cultural or economic influences in society. It also shows that certain contributions can be exploited in order to serve self-interest and present political agendas.

La presente disertación es un análisis de la literatura mexicana en la segunda mitad del siglo XX, con enfoque en las generaciones de Medio Siglo y el Crack. Se utiliza el método de Pierre Bourdieu con el fin de especificar las posiciones existentes en el campo literario mexicano, sus condiciones y las maneras en que se producen bienes simbólicos, con el objetivo de identificar las estrategias que los autores han creado para proyectarse dentro de la world literature. Para ello, se hace un énfasis en el estudio de las condiciones materiales, procesos, prácticas y actores que constituyen los campos literarios. Se utiliza también la world literature theory, tanto las perspectivas que han perpetuado la hegemonía europea como aquellas que priorizan a Latinoamérica y, específicamente, México. A partir de la figura del rizoma de Gilles Deleuze y Felix Guattari, se ilustra la fracturación de la relación vertical largamente instaurada a partir de la estructura centro-periferia, y se muestran los múltiples contactos y direcciones de intercambio cultural hacia dentro y fuera del campo mexicano. Por último, se acude a las teorías de las generaciones para explicar su relevancia para la literatura mexicana, puesto que es un concepto que ha institucionalizado a la misma y, por tanto, ha sido crucial para la formación del canon. La generación de Medio Siglo surge en la década de los sesenta, en un periodo de reciente consolidación de las instancias culturales del Estado, por lo tanto, las condiciones de posibilidad dependen de las instituciones gubernamentales, desde donde los autores generan estrategias a través del uso de dichas instituciones como espacios de reunión, trabajo y de expresión de un cosmopolitismo particular. Se suman a ellas los suplementos culturales y revistas, que se volvieron espacios donde se asumieron distintas posiciones (editor, crítico, traductor), a partir de las cuales se definen nuevos caminos simbólicos que vinculan a México con la world literature. La generación del Crack aparece en un contexto político y económico en el que el avance del capitalismo y la instauración del neoliberalismo han creado un campo literario dominado por los conglomerados internacionales. Por lo tanto, sus miembros deben lidiar con los imperativos del mercado que han dado preeminencia a un tipo de literatura latinoamericana que los autores impugnan. El Crack idea sus propias estrategias para insertarse en la world literature. Estas pueden ser textuales, como retomar la noción de novela total y escribir novelas ambiciosas, con una pluralidad de personajes e intertextualidad. También recurren a la apropiación de espacios y tiempos con el fin de apelar a una universalidad a partir de la negativa a escribir sobre México. Incluyen además elementos extratextuales, como actos performativos en apariciones públicas, publicaciones conjuntas y participar de las prácticas de circulación de la literatura (ferias, presentaciones, promoción cultural, etc.). A partir del análisis de estas dos generaciones se contribuirá con el estudio de dos periodos de la literatura mexicana que han sido pasados por alto en la academia. Al comprender las condiciones para la construcción de campos culturales determinados, podemos identificar las estrategias de reestructuración, de tal forma que haya una apertura para intercambios y posicionamientos. Así, la literatura mexicana mundial se constituye con base en los materiales disponibles para la producción y las prácticas que generan sus condiciones de posibilidad como world literature. / Spanish

This thesis examines the role of music in British-South Asian postcolonial literature, asking how music relates to the possibility of constructing postcolonial identity. The focus is on novels that explore the postcolonial condition in India and the United Kingdom, as well as Pakistan and the United States: Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy (1993), Amit Chaudhuri's Afternoon Raag (1993), Suhayl Saadi's Psychoraag (2004), Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) and The Black Album (1995), and Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999). The analysed novels feature different kinds of music, from Indian classical to non-classical traditions, and from Western classical music to pop music and rock 'n' roll. Music is depicted as a cultural artefact and as a purely aestheticised art form at the same time. As a cultural artefact, music derives meaning from its socio-cultural context of production and serves as a frame of reference to explore postcolonial identities on their own terms. As purely aesthetic art, music escapes its contextual meaning. The transcendental qualities of music render music a space where identities can be expressed irrespective of origin and politics of location. Thereby, music in the novels marks a very productive space to imagine the postcolonial nation and to rewrite imperial history, to express the cultural hybridity of characters in-between nations, to analyse the state of the nation and life in the multicultural diaspora of contemporary Great Britain, and to explore the ramifications of cultural globalisation versus cultural imperialism. Analysing music's cultural meaning and aesthetic value in relation to postcolonial identity, this thesis opens up new frames of textual and cultural analysis that help understand the postcolonial condition from the interdisciplinary perspective of word and music studies.

There has been an emergent trend in literary studies that challenges the tendency to categorize our approach to literature. This new investment in the idea of "world literature," while exciting, is also both theoretically and pragmatically problematic. While theorists can usually articulate a defense of a wider approach to literature, they struggle to develop a tangible approach to such an ideal. By examining Ezra Pound's critical approach to poetry, especially in The Cantos, an applicable visualization of a global approach to literature becomes more transparent.

This dissertation treats the diagram as a literary object. It explains how the diagram structured the conditions of possibility of a world-literary modernity as it emerged in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century. Caught between the competing epistemic regimes of scientific and humanistic knowledge, as well as between the clash of cultures, East and West, the diagram's potential as a scientifically neutral, and thus, "universal" language was deployed and redeployed in complex ways: just as the diagram was used to reveal the fundamental conditions of literary possibility, it was also made into a literary object itself. Thus, as both a hermeneutic tool and an aesthetic object itself, the diagram's place in literature is shown to hinge upon the necessary but ambivalent relationship between the gravitas of literary criticism and the spirit of play in literary art. Beginning with a philosophical and genealogical archaeology of the diagram, the dissertation unfolds by situating various theoretical issues elicited by the placement of the diagram in literature, such as problems of interpretation, cognition, translation, adaptation, and materiality, within an intricate matrix of historical and cultural contexts. Readings likewise draw from a wide range of disciplines, such as continental philosophy, history of science and mathematics, visual studies, as well as from a wide range of languages and literatures, from English, French, and German, to Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Commitments to cosmopolitanism and indigenism complicate the Modernist literature of the Third World. This study investigates the rhetorical and aesthetic responses of Third World "little magazines"--short-running, self-financed cultural magazines--to these two notions. These little magazine evolved with the daily newspaper as a tool favored by avant-garde movements for critiquing the social structures that produced it and for codifying their aesthetic and political principles. Comparing the Stridentist little magazine Horizonte (1926-1927) to D. H. Lawrence's novel The Plumed Serpent (1925), I argue that the Mexican Revolution created a climate of nationalism that reoriented the Stridentist movement away from a version of cosmopolitanism influenced by European modernist movements and toward a deeper interest in the Mexican folk and indigenous culture. Following form there, I consider the concept of cosmopolitanism in the Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier's El Reino de este mundo (1949) in comparison to two Haitian magazines: La Revue Indigène (1927-1928) and Les Griots (1938-1940). Here I find that, while Carpentier stages a relatively global critique of primitivism as a false cosmopolitanism, the magazines La Revue Indigène and Les Griots reflect a turn from such a cosmopolitanism that values the primitive for its own sake toward a cultural nationalism invested in the real and imagined recuperation of Haiti's African origins through the study of folklore, Vodou, the Kreyòl language and poetic images of Africa. Finally, I compare Futurist F. T. Marinetti's Mafarka le futuriste: roman africain (1909) to the Egyptian literary magazine Al-Kātib Al-Miṣrī (1945-1948) in order to demonstrate the distance between Egyptian modernity in the European imagination and the self-conceived notions of Egyptian modernity. In Al-Kātib Al-Miṣrī, I find that these writers value cosmopolitanism, arguing that it is in fact indigenous to Egyptian culture itself and constructing their notion of Egyptian modernity around the maintenance of continuity with this indigenous cosmopolitanism. My examinations of these magazines suggests that, though the European avant-gardes and Third World literary Modernists may wield the little magazine similarly against hegemonic cultures, their purposes are divided over the roles cosmopolitanism and indigeneity play in the formation of national culture. / text