This collection attempts to re-frame the discussions in Post45 by engaging with non-American writers, texts, and perspectives. Additionally, productive conversations emerge by attempting to think of canonical American writers like Mark Twain and Ishmael Reed from other national and global perspectives. The authors consider both the ways texts themselves as well as their reception histories approach and challenge our understandings of the contemporary. Ultimately, the collection interrogates prevailing narratives of history, culture, identity, and space within the Post45 field. In so doing, it re-considers the historical periodization of the field, which currently covers approximately 75 years of literary history. The resulting essays thus work towards a new intertwined narrative about what defines the contemporary and how national and global literatures fit into that moment of world history.
William G. Welty earned his PhD in English at Rutgers University in 2020. His writing has appeared in 'Politics/Letters', 'Textual Practice', 'Hypercultura', and 'Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Society'. He has also contributed chapters to 'The Encyclopedia of the Black Arts Movement', 'Trump Fiction', and 'Creoles, Diasporas, and Cosmopolitanisms'. Dr. Welty lives in New Jersey with his wife, son, and dog.