Transnational Literature: The Basics provides an indispensable overview of this important new field of study and the literature it explores. It concisely describes the various ways in which literature can be understood as being "transnational," explains why scholars in literary studies have become so interested in the topic, and discusses the economic, political, social, and cultural forces that have shaped its development.
The book explores a range of contemporary critical approaches to the subject, highlighting how topics like globalization, cosmopolitanism, diaspora, history, identity, migration, and decolonization are treated by both scholars in the field and the writers they study. The literary works discussed range across the globe and include fiction, poetry, and drama by writers including Jhumpa Lahiri, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jenny Erpenbeck, Aleksandar Hemon, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Derek Walcott, Louise Bennett, Xiaolu Guo, Sally Wen Mao, Wole Soy
