Transnationalism and American Serial Fiction

Spanning the 1820s through the 1960s, this collection analyzes serial fiction published in English, French, Spanish, German, Swedish, Italian, Polish, Norwegian, Yiddish, and Chinese, considering the ways in which serials function within minority communities. Okker claims that serial fiction was produced and read within a richly transnational context: the periodicals often circulated broadly, the narratives themselves favored transnational plots and themes, and the contents surrounding the fiction encouraged readers to identify with a community dispersed throughout the United States and often the world. She looks at the circulation of ideas, periodicals, characters and plots, and even people across various borders, focusing particularly on the ways that this fiction reflects the larger transnational realities of minority communities. In linking these transnational allegiances with the circulation of stories and periodicals, this book contributes to our understanding of not only print culture and periodical studies, but also transnationalism and multilingualism in American literature.