Transporting the subject: The fiction of nationality in an era of transnationalism.

Abstract

My work focuses on the representation of South Asian life in works by four contemporary Anglophone writers: V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, and Anita Desai. Of course, I also refer to works by other writers, such as Sara Suleri, Bharati Mukherjee, and Shashi Tharoor. I offer a critical dialogue between these works and the contemporary history they encounter, using history to interrogate fiction and using fiction to think through historical issues. In my dissertation, "Transporting the Subject: The Fiction of Nationality in an Era of Transnationalism, " I argue that the dissemination of transnational practices involves various socioeconomic, political, and cultural practices and identities that frequently bolster the nation state. Many scholars are of the opinion that contemporary transnationalism helps usher in a new post-national era, but such transnationalism does not necessarily weaken nationalism. On the contrary, it can at times operate to reinforce a nationalist agenda. Despite the creation of a new global order, transnationalism has led to the backlash politicization of identity in the form of fundamentalism, xenophobia, and a fanatical espousal of tradition.