How do emerging and postcolonial nations enlist fiction in their claims to sovereignty and autonomy? How do the novel's literary techniques and strategies perform a unique brand of political and social critique vis a vis nations and nationalisms? We will focus on novels from a variety of national contexts from the Global North and South to show how literary analysis can be a companion to the social sciences in illuminating the historical and social contexts of the nation-state. In addition, we will consider the function of literature in allowing stateless nations to imagine a shared connection. We will also focus on the inner workings of the novel in order to understand the conventions and mechanisms of the genre and how it interconnects with related forms such as cinema, performance, and the visual arts.