New Monograph Interrogates Literary Cosmopolitanism

Literary cosmopolitanism and national identity is the topic of a new monograph by Trinity Fellow Stefano-Maria Evangelista.  

Literary Cosmopolitanism in the English Fin de Siècle: Citizens of Nowhere examines the extensive and heated debated during the fin de siècle and offers a critical examination of cosmopolitanism as a distinctive feature of the literary modernity of this important period of cultural transition. While some writers and readers embraced the creative, imaginative, emotional, and political potentials of world citizenship, it was also denounced as a politically and morally suspect ideal. Dr Evangelista’s book presents the literature of the fin de siècle as a dynamic space of exchange and mediation, and argues that our own approach to literary studies should become less national in focus.

Dr Evangelista says: ‘This monograph has been in the making at least since 2015. I had worked on Oscar Wilde and the fin de siècle before, but this book takes on a new range of well-known and so-called minor authors, as well as literary periodicals and the often misunderstood phenomenon of artificial languages. First and foremost, I wanted to give a historical perspective on the idea of cosmopolitanism, which is very widely used in literary criticism today: the literature from around 1900 shows that cosmopolitanism was an embattled concept, which generated suspicion as well representing a positive ideal to aspire to.’  

The monograph is published by Oxford University Press.