Founder’s Prize for New Scholars 2016: “Looking Down Time’s Telescope at Myself”: Reincarnation and Global Futures in David Mitchell’s Fictional Worlds
In: KronoScopeSearch for other papers by Rose Harris-Birtill in
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Abstract
This essay explores the trope of reincarnation across the works of British author David Mitchell (b. 1969) as an alternative approach to linear temporality, whose spiralling cyclicality warns of the dangers of seeing past actions as separate from future consequences, and whose focus on human interconnection demonstrates the importance of collective, intergenerational action in the face of ecological crises. Drawing on the Buddhist philosophy of samsara, or the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, this paper identifies links between the author’s interest in reincarnation and its secular manifestation in the treatment of time in his fictions. These works draw on reincarnation in their structures and characterization as part of an ethical approach to the Anthropocene, using the temporal model of “reincarnation time” as a narrative strategy to demonstrate that a greater understanding of generational interdependence is urgently needed in order to challenge the linear “end of history” narrative of global capitalism.
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Boon, Marcus. 2015. “To Live in a Glass House is a Revolutionary Virtue Par Excellence: Marxism, Buddhism, and the Politics of Nonalignment.” In Nothing: Three Inquiries in Buddhism, edited by Marcus Boon, Eric Cazdyn and Timothy Morton, 23-104. London: University of Chicago Press.
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Childs, Peter. 2015. “Food Chain: Predatory Links in the Novels of David Mitchell.” Études anglaises 68 (2): 183-195.
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Edwards, Caroline. 2011. “ ‘Strange Transactions’: Utopia, Transmigration and Time in Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas.” In David Mitchell: Critical Essays, edited by Sarah Dillon, 177-200. Canterbury: Gylphi.
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Griffiths, Philip. 2004. “‘On the Fringe of Becoming’-David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten.” Beyond Extremes: Repräsentation und Reflexion von Modernisierungsprozessen im zeitgenösisschen britischen Roman, edited by Stefan Glomb and Stefan Horlacher, 79-99. Tübingen: Gunter NarVerlag Tübeing en.
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Harris, Paul A. 2015a. “David Mitchell’s Fractal Imagination: The Bone Clocks.” SubStance: David Mitchell in the Labyrinth of Time 44 (136): 148-153.
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Harris, Paul A. 2015b. “David Mitchell in the Labyrinth of Time.” SubStance: David Mitchell in the Labyrinth of Time 44 (136): 3-7.
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Mitchell, David. 1999a. Ghostwritten. London: Sceptre.
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Mitchell, David. 1999b. “Mongolia.” In New Writing 8, Vol. 8, edited by Tibor Fischer and Lawrence Norfolk, 514-561. London: Vintage.
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Mitchell, David. 2001. Number9dream. London: Sceptre.
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Mitchell, David. 2004a. Cloud Atlas. London: Sceptre.
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Mitchell, David. 2004b. Interview by Wayne Burrows. “An Interview with David Mitchell on Cloud Atlas, Murakami, Money and the Sinclair Zx Spectrum.” The Big Issue in the North, 2 March. https://serendipityproject.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/aug-7-2011-an-interview-with-david-mitchell-on-cloud-atlas-big-issue-in-the-north-2004/.
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Mitchell, David. 2005b. Interview by Richard Beard. “David Mitchell Interview.” RichardBeard.info. Tokyo University, 12 January. http://www.richardbeard.info/2005/01/david-mitchell-interview/.
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Mitchell, David. 2006a. Black Swan Green. London: Sceptre.
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Mitchell, David. 2006b. “Preface.” The Daily Telegraph, 29 April. Nexis. https://www.nexis.com/docview/getDocForCuiReq?lni=4JVD-GPV0-TX33-730B&csi=139186&oc=00240&perma=true.
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Mitchell, David. 2009. “The Massive Rat.” The Guardian, 1 August. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/01/david-mitchell-short-story-rat.
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Mitchell, David. 2010c. Interview by Harriet Gilbert. “World Book Club: David Mitchell—Cloud Atlas.” BBC World Service, April. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/2010/06/100604_wbc_david_mitchell.shtml.
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Mitchell, David. 2010d. Interview by Wyatt Mason. “David Mitchell, the Experimentalist.” The New York Times, 25 June. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/magazine/27mitchell-t.html.
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Mitchell, David. 2012. Interview by Shanghai TV. “2012 Shanghai Book Fair.” Reading Tonight. Youtube, 21 August. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y1zPJ9xpFo&list=PLsMDs0SXlAFWQOlLiNdnDdbntJkMkyeRA&index=57.
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Mitchell, David. 2013a. Interview by Andrei Muchnik. “David Mitchell Talks About Moscow, Literature and the Future.” Moscow Times, 13 September. https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/david-mitchell-talks-about-moscow-literature-and-the-future-27620.
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Mitchell, David. 2014a. The Bone Clocks. London: Sceptre.
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Mitchell, David. 2014c. Interview by Zahra Saeed. “Cork-Based Cloud Atlas Author David Mitchell on Twitter, His Children, and Latest Novel.” Irish Examiner. IrishExaminer.com, 4 September. http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/artsvibe/cork-based-cloud-atlas-author-david-mitchell-on-twitter-his-children-and-latest-novel-284747.html.
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Founder’s Prize for New Scholars 2016: “Looking Down Time’s Telescope at Myself”: Reincarnation and Global Futures in David Mitchell’s Fictional Worlds
In: KronoScopeSearch for other papers by Rose Harris-Birtill in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
This essay explores the trope of reincarnation across the works of British author David Mitchell (b. 1969) as an alternative approach to linear temporality, whose spiralling cyclicality warns of the dangers of seeing past actions as separate from future consequences, and whose focus on human interconnection demonstrates the importance of collective, intergenerational action in the face of ecological crises. Drawing on the Buddhist philosophy of samsara, or the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, this paper identifies links between the author’s interest in reincarnation and its secular manifestation in the treatment of time in his fictions. These works draw on reincarnation in their structures and characterization as part of an ethical approach to the Anthropocene, using the temporal model of “reincarnation time” as a narrative strategy to demonstrate that a greater understanding of generational interdependence is urgently needed in order to challenge the linear “end of history” narrative of global capitalism.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 281 | 0 | 0 |
| Full Text Views | 712 | 164 | 19 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 488 | 42 | 0 |
