The story of the development of the novel its origin, rise, and increasing popularity as a narrative form in an ever-expanding range of geographic and cultural sites is familiar and, according to the contributors to this volume, severely limited. In a far-reaching blend of comparative literature and transnational cultural studies, this collection shifts the study of the novel away from a consideration of what makes a particular narrative a novel to a consideration of how novels function and what cultural work they perform from what novels are, to what they do.
The essays in Cultural...