Afew years ago globalism seemed to be both a known and inexorable phenomenon. With the end of the Cold War, the opening of the Chinese economy, and the ascendancy of digital technology, the prospect of a unified flow of goods and services and of people and ideas seemed unstoppable. Yes, there were pockets of resistance and reaction, but these, we were told, would be swept away in a relentless tide of free markets and global integration that would bring Hollywood, digital fi nance, and fast food to all.

Nonetheless, we have begun to experience the backlash against a global world founded on digital fungibility, and the perils of appeals to nationalism, identity, and authenticity have become only too apparent. The anxieties and resentments produced by this new world order among those left behind are oft en manifested in assertions of xenophobia and particularity. The “other” is coming to take what is ours, and we must defend ourselves!

Digitalizing the Global Text is a collection of essays by an international group of scholars that situate themselves squarely at this nexus of forces. Together they examine how literature, culture, and philosophy in the global and digital age both enable the creation of these simultaneously utopian and dystopian worlds and offer resistance to them.