Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Note on texts -- CHAPTER ONE The modern novelist as redeemer of the nation -- THE MODERNIST NOVEL AND THE CRISIS OF LIBERAL NATIONALISM -- JOYCE, BALZAC, AND THE DYNAMIC OF DISILLUSIONMENT -- DISILLUSIONMENT AND THE POSSIBILITY OF LIBERAL POLITICS -- JOYCE'S TRANSFORMATION OF THE DISILLUSIONMENT PLOT STRUCTURE -- THE CONSCIENCE OF THE RACE AND THE MORAL UNITY OF THE NATION -- MODERNIST NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE AND THE RACIAL CONSCIENCE -- CHAPTER TWO The crisis of liberal nationalism -- THE DECLINE OF THE NATION-STATE -- THE LIBERAL COMPROMISE BETWEEN WILL AND CHARACTER -- NATIONAL WILL VS. NATIONAL CHARACTER -- THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZEN -- THE RIGHTS OF MEN AND THE RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN -- LITERARY FORM AND THE CRISIS OF LIBERALISM -- CHAPTER THREE "His sympathies were in the right place": Conrad and the discourse of national character -- CONRAD'S "IDÉE NATIONALE" AND ENGLISH LIBERAL NATIONALISM -- KURTZ AND THE PHANTOM OF INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRACY -- MARLOW'S THEORY OF CHARACTER -- CONRAD, CHARACTER, AND CULTURE -- CHAPTER FOUR Citizens of the Plain: Proust and the discourse of national will -- COMBRAY: SITE OF THE UNIFIED SELF? -- PROUSTIAN AND CARTESIAN DOUBT -- PROUSTIAN ETHICS: INVOLUNTARY MEMORY AND SOCIAL ROLES -- THE WAR: THE MORAL UNITY OF THE NATION AND THE GENERAL WILL -- THE DREYFUS AFFAIR: THE ACCURSED RACES AND THE NATION-STATE -- THE POSSIBILITY OF JUSTICE: EQUALITY OF CONDITION AND MULTIPLICITY OF SELVES -- CHAPTER FIVE "Il vate nazionale": D'Annunzio and the discourse of embodiment -- FIUMANISM AND FASCISM -- D'ANNUNZIO'S INFERNO: THE LYRICS OF SUFFERING -- D'ANNUNZIO'S PURGATORY: THE NARRATIVE OF REDEMPTION -- D'ANNUNZIO'S PARADISE: THE RETURN TO BATTLE -- GABRIELE'S "VITA NUOVA": THE "NOTTURNO" AND THE ART OF THE NOVEL -- Conclusion -- Notes.

1 THE MODERN NOVELIST AS REDEEMER OF THE NATION -- 2 THE CRISIS OF LIBERAL NATIONALISM -- 3 CONRAD AND THE DISCOURSE OF NATIONAL CHARACTER -- 4 PROUST AND THE DISCOURSE OF NATIONAL WILL -- 5 D'ANNUNZIO AND THE DISCOURSE OF EMBODIMENT -- CONCLUSION -- Select bibliography -- Index.