The Neoliberal Imagination in Contemporary Literature: A Study of Empathy in a Time of Global Crisis

This book examines the relationship between empathy and neoliberalism as it unfolded in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and through the turbulent 2010s. Via close readings of contemporary novels, as well as various non-fictional texts, it traces the changing approaches to empathy in the post-financial-crisis imagination, highlighting a crucial re-conceptualization of empathy as a boundaryless force, untethered to local or social circumstance. This reconceptualization implicitly aligns empathy with the neoliberal ethos of globalism and distances it from the traditional notion of ＂sympathy.＂ Via complex dialogue with the novelistic tradition of sympathy, contemporary novelists highlight the problematics of boundaryless empathy, while exploring ways to resist neoliberal views and values. Analyzing engagements with empathy in post-2008 literature and culture, the book sheds light on the underlying affective dynamics that enabled the persistence of neoliberalism after the 2008 financial crisis, alongside efforts to challenge its dominance.

Tammy Amiel Houser is a Senior Lecturer at the Open University of Israel in the Department of Literature, Language, and the Arts, and the MA program in Cultural Studies. She has written on the influence of George Elliot on the development of the novel, and on the intricate nexus of literature, ethics, and politics. Her current focus is on contemporary fiction in English, with publications on authors such as Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith, and Margaret Atwood.