Book: The International Novel

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The International Novel

Annabel Patterson, Sterling Professor Emeritus of English

(Yale University Press)

“The International Novel” explores nationalism and internationalism today, approached not theoretically but through the lens of fiction.

Novels, Annabel Patterson contends, are uniquely capable of dealing with abstract problems by embodying them in the experience of persons, thereby rendering them more “real.” She examines 12 novels from India, Africa, Turkey, Crete, the Balkans, Palestine, Afghanistan, South America, and Mexico. The novels illustrate the effects of some of the following: imperialism, partition, annexation, ethnic and religious strife, boundaries redrawn by aggression, the virus of dictatorships, the vulnerability of small countries, and the meddling of the Great Powers.

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