Alyssa Luck Doctoral Defense - Monday, 5/6 at 12:30 PM via Zoom

Committee: Miles Orvell (Chair, Emeritus), Sue-Im Lee, Laura McGrath, Dustin Kidd (Temple Sociology)

Title: Beyond and Amid Postcolonialism: Twenty-First Century Authorship and the Global Anglophone Novel

Abstract:

My dissertation considers specific forms of authorship and the novel produced amid the changes to technology, reading, and audience/author relationships leading into and within 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 highlights authorial voice and celebrity while acting as a site of connection between critical global audiences, authors, and institutions. As the global anglophone endures and develops as a critical category, work is needed to better illustrate 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.

Contact tara.lemma.diffley@temple.edu for the Zoom link!