Abstracts Category : Other

The Denial of Neoliberalism: Genre in Contemporary American and World Anglophone Novels

by Saara Raasu

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 Daz, Donna Tartt, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Atticus Lish. These novels reveal what I term neoliberal denialan ideology in denial of the anti-social conditions it produces. The narratives find resistance through acts of solicitude, commitment, and accountabilityor practices of solidaritywhich neoliberalism so readily denies.Advisors/Committee Members: Schleifer, Ronald (advisor), Zeigler, James (advisor), Cruise, Rebecca (committee member), John, Catherine (committee member), Stalling, Jonathan (committee member).