{"product_id":"formative-fictions-tobias-boes-9780801451775","title":"Formative Fictions: Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism, and the Bildungsroman","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eBildungsroman\u003c\/i\u003e, or \"novel of formation,\" has long led a paradoxical life within literary studies, having been construed both as a peculiarly German genre, a marker of that country's cultural difference from Western Europe, and as a universal expression of modernity. In \u003ci\u003eFormative Fictions\u003c\/i\u003e, Tobias Boes argues that the dual status of the Bildungsroman renders this novelistic form an elegant way to negotiate the diverging critical discourses surrounding national and world literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSince the late eighteenth century, authors have employed the story of a protagonist's journey into maturity as a powerful tool with which to facilitate the creation of national communities among their readers. Such attempts always stumble over what Boes calls \"cosmopolitan remainders,\" identity claims that resist nationalism's aim for closure in the normative regime of the nation-state. These cosmopolitan remainders are responsible for the curiously hesitant endings of so many novels of formation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eFormative Fictions\u003c\/i\u003e, Boes presents readings of a number of novels--Goethe's \u003ci\u003eWilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship\u003c\/i\u003e, Karl Leberecht Immermann's \u003ci\u003eThe Epigones\u003c\/i\u003e, Gustav Freytag's \u003ci\u003eDebit and Credit\u003c\/i\u003e, Alfred Döblin's \u003ci\u003eBerlin Alexanderplatz\u003c\/i\u003e, and Thomas Mann's \u003ci\u003eDoctor Faustus \u003c\/i\u003eamong them--that have always been felt to be particularly \"German\" and compares them with novels by such authors as George Eliot and James Joyce to show that what seem to be markers of national particularity can productively be read as topics of world literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Tobias Boes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0801451779\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780801451775\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Cornell University Press and Cornell Universi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/15\/2012\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 214\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d","brand":"Tobias Boes","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48621789085951,"sku":"9780801451775","price":145.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/formative-fictions-tobias-boes-9780801451775","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}