Grounds of Comparison

Benedict Anderson, professor at Cornell and specialist in Southeast Asian studies, is best known for his book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (1991). It is no understatement to say that this is one of the most influential books of the last twenty years. Widely read both by social scientists and humanists, it has become an unavoidable document. For people in the humanities, Anderson is particularly interesting because he explores the rise of nationalism in connection with the rise of the novel. CONTENTS Preface 1. Grounds of Comparison 2. On Imagined Communities 3. Anderson and the Novel 4. Bogeyman: Benedict Anderson's Derivative Discourse 5. Imagi-Nation: The Imagined Community and the Aesthetics of Mourning 6. Be-longing and Bi-lingual States 7. Authority, Solidarity, and the Political Economy of Identity: The Case of the United 8. Anderson's Utopia 9. Ghostly Comparisons: Anderson's Telescope 10. The Desire for the Sovereign and the Logic of Reciprocity in the Family of Nations 11. Response