ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the spatial turn in literary theory as fleshed out in Cities, Borders and Spaces in American Literature and Culture, and situates itself at the intersection of geography, literary criticism, and cultural criticism. As smooth spaces of fluctuation, nomadic spaces take shape beyond the realm of the state, beyond hierarchies and striated spaces. Especially in the American experience, the nomadic space was regularly projected onto the outside, beyond the spatial geography of the state itself. The new nomads negotiate the complex layers and interconnected vectors of their assigned social space. The new nomads locate and occupy 'spaces of dissensus' that emerge in the interstices of regulated space and interrupt, even if only briefly, the prevailing social order to create what Rancière calls 'a political moment'.
