David Mitchell Contemporary Critical Perspectives

by Knepper, Wendy; Hopf, Courtney; Baxter, Jeannette; Childs, Peter; Matthews, Sean; Groes, Sebastian

• ISBN13: 9781474262101
• ISBN10: 1474262104
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2017-07-27
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Since the publication of his first novel Ghostwritten in 1999, David Mitchell has rapidly established himself as one of the most important and original novelists of the 21st-century.

David Mitchell: Contemporary Critical Perspectives brings together leading scholars of contemporary fiction to guide readers through the full range of the author's writings, from his major novels such as Cloud Atlas, Number9dream and The Bone Clocks, to his shorter pieces and his libretti. As well as exploring Mitchell's genre-hopping techniques and his engagement with key contemporary issues such as globalization, the environment and gender, the book also includes coverage of the film adaptation of Cloud Atlas. The volume includes an interview with David Mitchell as well as annotated guides to further reading and online resources to help students and readers alike explore the works of this dazzlingly inventive writer.

Author Biography

Wendy Knepper is Senior Lecturer at Brunel University London, UK. Her previous publications include Postcolonial Literature (2011) and Patrick Chamoiseau: A Critical Introduction (2012).

Courtney Hopf is Lecturer in the Department of Liberal Studies at New York University, London Campus, UK.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Contributors
Timeline
Foreword by Hari Kunzru

Introduction, Wendy Knepper (Brunel University London, UK) and Courtney Hopf (New York University London, UK)
1. Navigating “the Reality Gap”: Utopianism and Globalization in David Mitchell's Ghostwritten, Hugh Charles O'Connell (University of Massachusetts Boston, USA)
2. The Search for Meaning in David Mitchell's Number9dream, Nick Bentley (Keele University, UK)
3. The Conservatism of Cloud Atlas, Martin Paul Eve (University of Lincoln, UK)
4. David Mitchell's Shorter Fiction, Wendy Knepper (Brunel University London, UK)
5. “Battling Hangman”: The Stammering Narrative of Black Swan Green, Courtney Hopf (New York University London, UK)
6. The Liminal Stages of Globalization in The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Jason Howard Mezey (St. Joseph's University, USA)
7. Presence, Spectrality and History in The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, William Stephenson (University of Chester, UK)
8. Voicing Tragedy in David Mitchell's Libretti, Rose Harris-Birtill (University of St. Andrews, UK)
9. Mitchell's Eco-critical Imaginary: From Ghostwritten to The Bone Clocks, Treasa DeLoughry (University College Dublin, Ireland)
10. LEGO-ic Characterisation and Maximalist Aesthetics in The Bone Clocks, Chris Koenig-Woodyard (University of Toronto, Canada)

Interview with David Mitchell, Wendy Knepper (Brunel University London, UK) and Courtney Hopf (New York University London, UK)
Further Reading and Online Resources
Index