Abstract
This thesis reconceptualizes cosmopolitanism for the contemporary moment as fragmented belonging, critiquing and moving beyond traditional cosmopolitan frameworks grounded in universal reason, seamless integration, or coherent identity. Through close readings of Teju Cole’s Open City and Tremor, and Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West, this study argues that cosmopolitanism today emerges explicitly from rupture, contradiction, and ethical struggle, shaped fundamentally by conditions of displacement, empire, surveillance, and global capitalism. Engaging critical theorists such as Kwame Anthony Appiah, Homi Bhabha, Pheng Cheah, and Roland Barthes, the thesis identifies fragmented belonging as an ethically charged response to the asymmetrical realities of contemporary globalization. Cole’s narratives critique detached cosmopolitanism inherited from modernism, proposing instead an ethically accountable form of engagement rooted in historical memory, relational care, and vulnerability. Hamid dramatizes cosmopolitanism’s inherent contradictions, highlighting its structural complicities and conditional inclusivity under neoliberal capitalism. Through speculative and ambiguous narrative structures, both authors actively theorize cosmopolitan rupture as essential to the ongoing, imaginative labor of ethical engagement and relational solidarity. Ultimately, this thesis contends that cosmopolitanism, if it is to remain meaningful, must embrace its fractures not as limitations but as foundational conditions for ethical accountability, responsiveness, and critical imagination.
","abstract_html":"<p>Abstract</p> <p>This thesis reconceptualizes cosmopolitanism for the contemporary moment as fragmented belonging, critiquing and moving beyond traditional cosmopolitan frameworks grounded in universal reason, seamless integration, or coherent identity. Through close readings of Teju Cole’s <em>Open City</em> and <em>Tremor</em>, and Mohsin Hamid’s <em>The Reluctant Fundamentalist</em> and <em>Exit West</em>, this study argues that cosmopolitanism today emerges explicitly from rupture, contradiction, and ethical struggle, shaped fundamentally by conditions of displacement, empire, surveillance, and global capitalism. Engaging critical theorists such as Kwame Anthony Appiah, Homi Bhabha, Pheng Cheah, and Roland Barthes, the thesis identifies fragmented belonging as an ethically charged response to the asymmetrical realities of contemporary globalization. Cole’s narratives critique detached cosmopolitanism inherited from modernism, proposing instead an ethically accountable form of engagement rooted in historical memory, relational care, and vulnerability. Hamid dramatizes cosmopolitanism’s inherent contradictions, highlighting its structural complicities and conditional inclusivity under neoliberal capitalism. Through speculative and ambiguous narrative structures, both authors actively theorize cosmopolitan rupture as essential to the ongoing, imaginative labor of ethical engagement and relational solidarity. Ultimately, this thesis contends that cosmopolitanism, if it is to remain meaningful, must embrace its fractures not as limitations but as foundational conditions for ethical accountability, responsiveness, and critical imagination.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Fischetti, Adriana"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (M.A.)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Robert Higney","Vaclav Paris","Andras Kisery"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2025-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:58:07Z","subjects":["cosmopolitanism","literature","literary theory","Literature in English, North America"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/1217","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Robert Higney","Vaclav Paris","Andras Kisery"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Fischetti, Adriana"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2025-05-06T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (M.A.)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["cosmopolitanism","literature","literary theory","Literature in English, North America"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/1217"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Abstract
This thesis reconceptualizes cosmopolitanism for the contemporary moment as fragmented belonging, critiquing and moving beyond traditional cosmopolitan frameworks grounded in universal reason, seamless integration, or coherent identity. Through close readings of Teju Cole’s Open City and Tremor, and Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West, this study argues that cosmopolitanism today emerges explicitly from rupture, contradiction, and ethical struggle, shaped fundamentally by conditions of displacement, empire, surveillance, and global capitalism. Engaging critical theorists such as Kwame Anthony Appiah, Homi Bhabha, Pheng Cheah, and Roland Barthes, the thesis identifies fragmented belonging as an ethically charged response to the asymmetrical realities of contemporary globalization. Cole’s narratives critique detached cosmopolitanism inherited from modernism, proposing instead an ethically accountable form of engagement rooted in historical memory, relational care, and vulnerability. Hamid dramatizes cosmopolitanism’s inherent contradictions, highlighting its structural complicities and conditional inclusivity under neoliberal capitalism. Through speculative and ambiguous narrative structures, both authors actively theorize cosmopolitan rupture as essential to the ongoing, imaginative labor of ethical engagement and relational solidarity. Ultimately, this thesis contends that cosmopolitanism, if it is to remain meaningful, must embrace its fractures not as limitations but as foundational conditions for ethical accountability, responsiveness, and critical imagination.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Cosmopolitanism Now: Fragmented Belonging"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Robert Higney","Vaclav Paris","Andras Kisery"],"dc:creator":["Fischetti, Adriana"],"dc:date.available":["2025-05-06T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Abstract
This thesis reconceptualizes cosmopolitanism for the contemporary moment as fragmented belonging, critiquing and moving beyond traditional cosmopolitan frameworks grounded in universal reason, seamless integration, or coherent identity. Through close readings of Teju Cole’s Open City and Tremor, and Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West, this study argues that cosmopolitanism today emerges explicitly from rupture, contradiction, and ethical struggle, shaped fundamentally by conditions of displacement, empire, surveillance, and global capitalism. Engaging critical theorists such as Kwame Anthony Appiah, Homi Bhabha, Pheng Cheah, and Roland Barthes, the thesis identifies fragmented belonging as an ethically charged response to the asymmetrical realities of contemporary globalization. Cole’s narratives critique detached cosmopolitanism inherited from modernism, proposing instead an ethically accountable form of engagement rooted in historical memory, relational care, and vulnerability. Hamid dramatizes cosmopolitanism’s inherent contradictions, highlighting its structural complicities and conditional inclusivity under neoliberal capitalism. Through speculative and ambiguous narrative structures, both authors actively theorize cosmopolitan rupture as essential to the ongoing, imaginative labor of ethical engagement and relational solidarity. Ultimately, this thesis contends that cosmopolitanism, if it is to remain meaningful, must embrace its fractures not as limitations but as foundational conditions for ethical accountability, responsiveness, and critical imagination.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/1217"],"dc:subject":["cosmopolitanism","literature","literary theory","Literature in English, North America"],"dc:title":["Cosmopolitanism Now: Fragmented Belonging"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (M.A.)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:58:07Z"}