Poetics of Empowerment in David Mitchells Novels

It combines the investigation of David Mitchell's novels with the introduction of a new critical concept to literary studies: empowerment. It probes the author's strategies and agenda of empowering fiction on the levels of discourse, the characters.

List of contents

Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
2 A Poetics of Empowerment?
Zooming in on Empowerment: Concepts and Contexts
Empowerment and Literature
3 Empowering Discourse
"All Boundaries Are Conventions": David Mitchell's Literary Playground
Chapters in an Über-book: Understanding Mitchell's Fictional Universe
4 Empowering Characters
From Subjugation to Emancipation: Journeys of Empowerment in Cloud Atlas
Politics, Playground Bullies, Poetry: Empowerment in Black Swan Green
Culture and Genre Clashes: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
5 Empowering Readers
Reader-Response Theory, Empathy, Cognition, and Agency
David Mitchell's Novels and the Role of the Reader
6 Conclusion: Towards a Poetics of Empowerment
Index

About the author

Eva-Maria Windberger is a postdoctoral researcher in the field of British literature and culture at the University of Trier. In 2020, she completed a Ph.D. thesis exploring strategies and functions of empowerment in the novels of David Mitchell. She is co-editor (with Ralf Hertel) of the volume Empowering Contemporary Fiction: The Impact of Empowerment in Literary Studies (2021). Her current research project focuses on the performativity of East Asian identities on the British stage.

Summary

It combines the investigation of David Mitchell’s novels with the introduction of a new critical concept to literary studies: empowerment. It probes the author’s strategies and agenda of empowering fiction on the levels of discourse, the characters.

Product details

• Authors: Eva-Maria Windberger
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 29.11.2024
• EAN: 9781032318424
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3231842-4
• No. of pages: 272
• Series: Routledge Studies in Contemporary Literature
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Freedom, History, Sociology, Popular Culture, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 21st Century, Humanities, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000