Conclusion

<p>This concluding chapter explains how studies of “transnational” German, Japanese, or Brazilian literatures or cinemas create for themselves a conundrum that cannot be properly studied: if it is transnational, it cannot be assessed within national parameters. To recognize the relationship of the cinematic apparatus to the current social configuration unfolding in Europe and beyond, this book has necessitated a broad comparative and historical approach. At the same time, to invoke the term <italic>transnational</italic> here is itself misleading. The book set out to correct and revise the research on transnationalism by rejecting the neo-Hegelian assumption that informs much of the work on transnationalism in Europe.</p>