The Contemporary Novel And The City Reconceiving National And Narrative Form

"Referring to a period -- the twentieth century -- of unprecedented urban growth, culminating in a 'global village' that has taken a decidedly urban turn, this book argues for and establishes the deeply symbiotic relationship between the literary radicalism of Joyce and Rushdie and the fact that they write about cities. Joyce's literary influence on Rushdie is well established. The strength of this project, however, is to put into conversation two writers from colonial backgrounds, both in self-imposed 'exile' from the cities of their birth but compulsively writing about them. Enabled in the first instance by the formative influence of Joyce on Rushdie, this comparative framework facilitates a deeper understanding of the continuities as well as contrasts between a fringe-First world colonial city and its Third world postcolonial counterpart at the two ends of the twentieth century."--Publisher website.