Before Borders

"Beginning from the illuminating premise that becoming a citizen is a 'naturalization' as much a fictional as it is a historical and political act of states, Stephanie DeGooyer has turned in a bravura performance as relevant to legal history and theory as it is to literary study. The interdisciplinary scholarship of Before Borders points in new directions for multiple fields, while its story of early modern inclusion and exclusion touches on the most burning and uncomfortable topics in contemporary life."

"Before Borders is a luminous and persuasive account of a forgotten dimension of legal history in which naturalization does not involve assimilation. DeGooyer has an enviable gift for historical narrative, and her revisionist account of the early novel as working analogously with naturalization law adds to the critical vocabulary of world literature."

"DeGooyer has a distinctive voice in making provocative and important arguments about nation and narrative in the long eighteenth century. Before Borders is a book of genuine brilliance."

"Before Borders achieves what the best criticism seeks to do: it enables us to see familiar works from a fresh perspective, making the results seem glaringly obvious after they have been pointed out. DeGooyer's treatment of legal history is sophisticated, and her new readings of Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein present a powerful analysis of debates over immigration and the staging of its logic in the eighteenth century."

"Before Borders tells a compelling story about the role of naturalization in English law and novels of the eighteenth century. DeGooyer's arguments lend support to the notion that the nationalist responses to today's refugee crisis are not inevitable given the longer arc of Anglo-American history."