Genre in Contemporary American and World Anglophone Novels
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UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE DENIAL OF NEOLIBERALISM: GENRE IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN AND WORLD ANGLOPHONE NOVELS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By SAARA RAASU Norman, Oklahoma 2017 THE DENIAL OF NEOLIBERALISM: GENRE IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN AND WORLD ANGLOPHONE NOVELS A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH BY Dr. Ronald Schleifer, Co-Chair Dr. James Zeigler, Co-Chair Dr. Rebecca Cruise Dr. Catherine John Dr. Jonathan Stalling © Copyright by SAARA RAASU 2017 All Rights Reserved. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Ronald Schleifer, Dr. James Zeigler, Dr. Rebecca Cruise, Dr. Catherine John, and Dr. Jonathan Stalling, each of whom was essential to the development of this project. I am indebted to my dissertation committee co-chairs, Dr. Schleifer and Dr. Zeigler, for the excitement they provoked through their own work, and for the guidance they provided in the process of researching for and writing these chapters. I would like to give thanks to the Department of English, Graduate College, College of International Studies, International Student Services, and the University Libraries at the University of Oklahoma, as well as Thanks to Scandinavia Foundation, for giving me the time, space, and financial support, which were indispensable to completing this project. Thank you also to the past and present faculty of the OU Department of English, whom I studied with, for inspiration, and to the staff, especially Sara Day, Sara Knight, and Brenda Mackey, for their assistance and patience. In addition, many thanks to friends and colleagues who graciously commented on my work, and shared teaching advice or duties over the years. In particular, I am grateful for the feedback, support, and friendship of Shannon Toll, Liz Smith, and Brett Burkhart. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: NEOLIBERAL DENIAL AND GENRE IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN AND WORLD ANGLOPHONE NOVELS .............................................. 1 The Beginnings of an Ideology with “No National Purpose” ...................................... 1 An Ideology in Denial .................................................................................................. 5 Genre under Neoliberalism ......................................................................................... 12 Overview of Chapters ................................................................................................. 14 1. POLITICAL NO MORE: EPISTOLARIES BY J.M. COETZEE AND PAUL AUSTER ......................................................................................................................... 18 1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 18 1.2 Private, Public, and Dialogics in the Epistolary ................................................... 22 1.3 Unlearning Apartheid Ideology in Age of Iron ..................................................... 26 1.4 Learning Ethical Understanding ........................................................................... 34 1.5 Commitment to Witnessing as Resistance in In the Country of Last Things ....... 38 1.6 Mass Culture and Cynicism .................................................................................. 44 1.7 Crafting Dialogue and Solicitude ......................................................................... 47 1.8 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 53 2. ANTI-SOCIAL MATURITY: BILDUNGSROMANS BY JUNOT DÍAZ AND DONNA TARTT ............................................................................................................ 57 2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 57 2.2 Anti-Social Maturity in the Bildungsroman ......................................................... 61 2.3 Individual Choice, Domination, and Isolation in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao .................................................................................................................. 65 2.4 From Socialized to Anti-Social Bildung ............................................................... 70 2.5 Bildung as Striving in Isolation ............................................................................ 77 2.6 Unsettling Individualism in The Goldfinch .......................................................... 83 2.7 Bildung as Managing Risk .................................................................................... 89 2.8 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 95 3. OTHER THAN ASSIMILATION: IMMIGRANT NARRATIVES BY CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE AND ATTICUS LISH ....................................... 99 3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 99 3.2 Non-Assimilationist Immigrant Narratives ........................................................ 104 3.3 Self-Interested Immigration in Americanah ....................................................... 109 3.4 Assimilation in “Exclusive Democracy” ............................................................ 115 v 3.5 Non-Assimilation as Success ............................................................................. 120 3.6 Alienation and Accountability in Preparation for the Next Life ........................ 126 3.7 Risk and Shared Responsibility .......................................................................... 134 3.8 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 140 CODA: THE NARRATIVE OF MARKET FUNDAMENTALISM AS A GLOBAL WAY OF LIFE ............................................................................................................. 144 A Genre That Responds to Social Instability ........................................................... 146 The Story of Market Fundamentalism ...................................................................... 148 Solidarity as Resistance ............................................................................................ 153 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 159 vi ABSTRACT In this dissertation, “The Denial of Neoliberalism: Genre in Contemporary American and World Anglophone Novels,” I examine narratives, which demonstrate conflicts within the laissez-faire ideology. Neoliberalism presents itself as an ideology of entrepreneurial individuals who find human connection through the deregulated, global market, but genre changes show that this self-representation is tenuous. The distinction between public and private is central to the epistolary novel, but an erosion of that distinction reveals a transition from political to post-political society, as well as a contradiction between a devotion to social market relations and an assertion of radical individualism. The maturation of adolescents into national subjects is disrupted in the neoliberal Bildungsroman, revealing another conflict: neoliberalism dismisses sociality, but participates in a collective consciousness guided by self-interest. The immigration narrative is no longer driven by assimilation but entrepreneurial success, yet, even if neoliberalism expands transnational networks, it renders migration and integration issues of national law, outlawing those whose mobility is determined by global capital. Questions central to this dissertation include: How does neoliberalism represent itself and ignore what it actually enacts, and how do novels engage critically with neoliberalism while articulating alternatives? In its contribution to Literary and Cultural Studies, this project discusses works by J.M. Coetzee, Paul Auster, Junot Díaz, Donna Tartt, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Atticus Lish. These novels reveal what I term “neoliberal denial”—an ideology in denial of the anti-social conditions it produces. The narratives find resistance through acts of solicitude, commitment, and accountability— or practices of solidarity—which neoliberalism so readily denies. vii INTRODUCTION: NEOLIBERAL DENIAL AND GENRE IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN AND WORLD ANGLOPHONE NOVELS In a much quoted passage in his inaugural address, President Kennedy said, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.’ It is a striking sign of the temper of our times that the controversy about this passage centered on its origin and not on its content. Neither half of the statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society. The paternalistic ‘what your country can do for you’ implies that government is the patron, the citizen the ward, a view that is at odds with the free man’s belief in his own responsibility for his own destiny. The organismic, ‘what you can do for your country’ implies that government is the master or the deity, the citizen, the servant or the votary. To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. He is proud of a common heritage and loyal to common traditions. But he regards government as a means, an instrumentality, neither a grantor of favors and gifts, nor