Overview

The Poetics of Empowerment in David Mitchell’s Novels combines the investigation of David Mitchell’s novels with the introduction of a new critical concept to literary studies: empowerment. Aiming to situate and establish empowerment firmly within the context of literary studies, it offers the first framework and definition for reading fictional texts with the lens of empowerment and applies it in the analysis of discourse, the fictional characters, and the role of the reader in Mitchell’s novels. Drawing on narratological analysis, cognitive approaches to literature, and reader-response theory, it features close readings of Cloud Atlas (2004), Black Swan Green (2006), and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010) and dissects the author’s strategies, poetics, and agenda of empowering fiction. This book argues for an inherent, indissoluble connection between empowerment and the telling of stories and demonstrates how literary studies can benefit from a serious engagement with empowerment—and how such an engagement can stimulate new responses to fiction and put literary studies in conversation with other disciplines.

Full Product Details

Author:   Eva-Maria Windberger
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.675kg
ISBN:  

9781032308586

ISBN 10:   1032308583
Pages:   272
Publication Date:   17 July 2023
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table 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"

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Author Information

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.

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