“The book’s final section on “Political Imaginaries” brings Fluck, Pease, Walter Benn Michaels, and Chris Newfield together in what amounts to a jazz riff on the state of the imaginative nation. If we ever wondered why we are in this business of American Studies after the transnational turn, this section reminds us of the whimsical provocation, play, and sheer imagination that can, under the best of circumstances, guide us to unexpected places of ideation and creation.”—American Literary History
“One of the most valuable aspects of this critical anthology involves its illumination of different ways in which the term “social imaginary” has been used and the different intellectual traditions it evokes. . . . This collection of essays is a fine tribute to Fluck’s significant career as a pioneer of international American studies, but it also raises broader questions about ways in which non-U.S. perspectives on American cultural politics can provide an important check and balance system within the field.”—Amerikastudien/American Studies
“If one wished to move beyond the ‘transnational turn,’ or indeed, ‘turns’ in general, and commit to a broader and more fluid inquiry into how American literature might be read as explorations of an unsettled and unsettling global space, one could wish for no better guide than these top-notch essays by some of today’s most eminent critics. A highly useful introduction orients the reader well, and the pieces that follow confirm the importance of this topic.”—David Palumbo-Liu, author of The Deliverance of Others: Reading Literature in a Global Age