In this path-breaking new work, Gregory Jusdanis asks why literature matters. Why are we afraid to admit our pleasures of reading, to defend the arts to the school board, to discuss the importance of literature in life? Drawing on a wealth of references from Aristophanes to Eudora Welty, from Fernando Pessoa to Orhan Pamuk, from Cavafy to hypertext stories, Jusdanis reminds us that the arts have always been under attack. Instead of despair, however, he offers a pragmatic defense of literature, arguing that it performs a social function in dramatizing the break between illusion and reality, life and the life-like, permanence and metamorphosis. The ability to distinguish between the actual and the imaginary is essential to human beings. Our capacity to imagine something new, to project ourselves into the mind of another person, and to fight for a new world is based on this distinction. Literature allows us to imagine alternate possibilities of human relationships and political institutions, even in the watery world of the Internet. At once daring and lucid, "Fiction Agonistes" considers the place of art today with passion and optimism.

This work considers the role literature played in the construction of a national culture - that sphere of shared sentiments, values, and beliefs that define the nation-state in Greece during the last two centuries. Unlike other works that address the formation of national literatures in Europe, this volume explores the importation of literature into a largely non-Western society.

"This is an exceptionally erudite and thoughtful book on one of the major subjects of our day--the future of the nation-state. Gregory Jusdanis offers a wide-ranging discussion of culture and nationalism that raises important questions for cultural critics, political theorists, and historians, among other readers."--Barry S. Strauss, Cornell University

"Thoughtful, balanced and urgent, Jusdanis's study acknowledges the double-edged nature of nationalism. It resists the wholesale rejection of nationalism that has become characteristic of an historically ill-informed, conceptually impoverished, and politically correct anti-nationalism. Drawing upon a range of disciplines and national histories, he offers a rich and flexible discourse of nationalism and its others."--Khachig Tololyan, Wesleyan University

"Gregory Jusdanis has written a provocative book that challenges the nearly universal opinion among cultural studies and postcolonial theorists that the nation-form must and should be overcome. Strongly critical of the presentist biases of much current writing on the nation, Jusdanis provides an historical theory essential to all those interested in a variety of important problems: the role of the intellectual in nation-building; the nation in the era of globalization; the nation in a post-colonial world; and the origins of nationalism. Daring and lucid at the same time, "The Necessary Nation" is basic reading for scholars in all the humanistic and social science disciplines."--Paul A. Bove, University of Pittsburgh

This full-length theoretical examination of Constantine Cavafy breaks the study of this great Greek poet free from the narrow context of traditional scholarship and introduces the latest critical developments into the study of Greek poetry. Originally published in 1987. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

"Why did you do all this for me?" Wilbur asked. "I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you."

You have been my friend, replied Charlotte. That in itself is a tremendous thing.

from Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

Friendship encompasses a wide range of social bonds, from playground companionship and wartime camaraderie to modern marriages and Facebook links. For many, friendship is more meaningful than familial ties. And yet it is our least codified relationship, with no legal standing or bureaucratic definition. In A Tremendous Thing, Gregory Jusdanis explores the complex, sometimes contradictory nature of friendship, reclaiming its importance in both society and the humanities today. Ranging widely in his discussion, he looks at the art of friendship and friendship in art, finding a compelling link between our need for friends and our engagement with fiction. Both, he contends, necessitate the possibility of entering invented worlds, of reading the minds of others, and of learning to live with people.

Investigating the ethics, aesthetics, and politics of friendship, Jusdanis draws from the earliest writings to the present, from the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Iliad to Charlotte's Web and Brokeback Mountain, as well as from philosophy, sociology, evolutionary biology, psychology, and political theory. He asks: What makes friends stay together? Why do we associate friendship with mourning? Does friendship contribute to the formation of political communities? Can friends desire each other? The history of friendship demonstrates that human beings are a mutually supportive species with an innate aptitude to envision and create ties with others. At a time when we are confronted by war, economic inequality, and climate change, Jusdanis suggests that we reclaim friendship to harness our capacity for cooperation and empathy."

This full-length theoretical examination of Constantine Cavafy breaks the study of this great Greek poet free from the narrow context of traditional scholarship and introduces the latest critical developments into the study of Greek poetry.

Originally published in 1987.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

In this path-breaking new work, Gregory Jusdanis asks why literature matters. Why are we afraid to admit our pleasures of reading, to defend the arts to the school board, to discuss the importance of literature in life? Drawing on a wealth of references from Aristophanes to Eudora Welty, from Fernando Pessoa to Orhan Pamuk, from Cavafy to hypertext stories, Jusdanis reminds us that the arts have always been under attack. Instead of despair, however, he offers a pragmatic defense of literature, arguing that it performs a social function in dramatizing the break between illusion and reality, life and the life-like, permanence and metamorphosis. The ability to distinguish between the actual and the imaginary is essential to human beings. Our capacity to imagine something new, to project ourselves into the mind of another person, and to fight for a new world is based on this distinction. Literature allows us to imagine alternate possibilities of human relationships and political institutions, even in the watery world of the Internet. At once daring and lucid, "Fiction Agonistes" considers the place of art today with passion and optimism.