Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
English
Date of Award
5-2015
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Daniel Westover
Committee Members
Mark Baumgartner, Matthew Fehskens
Abstract
A cosmodern reading of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas creates a positive vision of the future for readers through various techniques of fragmentation including fragmentation of voice, language, and time. By fragmentation, I have in mind the consistent interruption of the novel’s voice, language, and time that requires an active and aware readership. The reader’s interaction with the text makes the novel re-constructive. In fact, the global nature of Mitchell’s novel, its hopeful ending, and its exploration of the effects of globalization can be considered as a means of exploring the dynamic relationships between the characters, the reader, and Mitchell’s authorial voice. Rather than falling back on familiar postmodernist truisms such as the hopelessness of genuine communication or the impossibility of truth, Mitchell creates a hopeful vision of the future of the world, one that champions the life, agency, and personal narrative of the individual.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Miller, Beth Katherine, "Re-Construction Through Fragmentation: A Cosmodern Reading of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2524. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2524
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.