Abschlussarbeit

zur Erlangung

der Magistra Artium

im Fachbereich Neuere Philologien

Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main

Institut für England- und Amerikastudien

Postmodernist Intertextuality

in David Mitchell′s Cloud Altas

Vorgelegt von: Martina Hrubes

aus: Mühlheim am Main

Einreichungsdatum: 25. Februar 2008

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Für Dalas, Cosima

und meine Eltern

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Contents

I

Introduction

5

II

Historical and Theoretical Backgrounds of

Postmodernity/

Postmodernism

10

1. The Postmodern Condition

10

2. Challenging the Given: Deconstruction and Discourse 14

3. Concepts of Postmodernism

18

4. Intertextuality as Metafiction and Dialogue

21

5. Postmodernist Intertextuality and the Politics of

Representation

28

III Postmodernist Intertextuality in Cloud Atlas

32

1.

Intertextual Structures and Recurring Motifs

32

1.1 Framing Narratives: The Matrioshka as Structuring

Principle and Metaphor

33

1.2 Intertextuality as Déjà-Lu

37

1.3 Fragmentation and Indeterminacy

39

1.4 Making Connections: Perhaps and Accident, Perhaps

an Intention

44

1.5 Eternal Recurrence and the Will to Power

50

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2. Ideological

Fictions:

Deconstructing Generic and

Narrative Conventions

59

2.1 Realism, Progress and the Conception of Empire in

The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing

62

2.2 Modernist Aestheticism in

Letters from Zedelghem

72

2.3 Paranoia and Suspense and Catharsis:

Half-lives ­

The First Luisa Rey Mystery

as Corporate Thriller 80

2.4

The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish

as

Neo-Picaresque 87

2.5 Metaphorising the Menace:

An Orison of Sonmi~451

as

Corpocratic Dystopia 95

2.6 After The Fall ­ Post-Apocalyptic Dystopia in

Sloosha′s Crossin′ an′ Ev′rythin′ After

109

IV

Conclusion: Intertextual HiStories

118

V

Bibliography

122

Zusammenfassung

126

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I

Introduction

The title of this study is "Postmodernist Intertextuality in David Mitchell′s

Cloud Atlas

" and is based on the following hypotheses:

1. There is a particular kind of intertextuality specific to postmodernist

literature that differs from previous uses of intertextual references.

2. Postmodernist intertextuality is deconstructive, self-reflexive and

critical of Western hegemonic discourses and metanarratives.

3. This specific kind of intertextuality is a key element of postmodernist

art.

The first part of this work is going to outline some of the social and

historical developments that have been associated with the postmodern

condition and the rise of new art forms which respond to these changes.

Lyotard′s description of postmodernity as an age that is marked by its

profound "incredulity toward metanarratives" (

The Postmodern Condition:

A Report on Knowledge

xxiv) is of particular significance to this study,

especially his critique of the so-called "Enlightenment narrative" (xxiii) with

its humanist values. This definition helps understand the interaction

between postmodern theory and postmodernist art, which, as I will argue,

are both directed against the same universalist assumptions. While

Jameson and Baudrillard, usually the other two thinkers beside Lyotard

associated with postmodern theory, describe postmodernity/

postmodernism as marked by depthlessness, Lyotard comprehends

postmodernism as profoundly political. Post-structuralism presents a major

point of departure for postmodern theory. "This is", as Ian Gregson argues,

"because postmodern theory stresses, above all, issues of representation

­ it focuses upon how the `real′ is constructed through language [...]"

(

Postmodern Literature

7). Foucault′s method of "discourse analysis",

presented in

The Archaeology of Knowledge

, has strongly influenced

postmodernist literature, as has Derrida′s theory on signification and his

strategy of deconstruction. However, as their concepts have become

something like the "standard tools" of contemporary philosophical and

literary theory, their names will appear here less often than would be their

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due. Many of the theoretical sources I quote are strongly influenced by

post-structuralist thought.

Postmodern theory, post-structuralism and postmodernism as aesthetic

practice are all deeply concerned with questions of textuality and power.

Although Derrida very seldom writes explicitly about political issues, the

political potential of his problematizing of language as motivated and

hierarchical is all but insignificant. His ideas have directly and indirectly

influenced postcolonial and post-feminist writers and theorists as well,

whose agendas are intricately related to those of postmodernism insofar

as they attempt to give a voice to the marginalized, or what Linda

Hutcheon in

A Poetics of Postmodernism

calls the "ex-centric" (35).

The study at hand is mostly based on Hutcheon′s notion of

postmodernism, precisely because she, more than most others, grasps

the political dimension of postmodernist art. Her concept of

"historiographic metafiction" foregrounds the ways in which postmodernist

literature draws attention to the complicity of literary and historical

discourses in the perpetuation of dominant power structures. She thus

identifies in postmodernism the same concerns ­ language, power, history

­ that are so prominent in the works of Lyotard, Foucault and Derrida, to

name only a few. According to Hutcheon, postmodernism attempts to

challenge Western hegemonic discourses by ironically revisiting and

rewriting the stories and histories of the past, thereby both exposing their

artificiality and giving a voice to those silenced by standard history. The

second concept that presents the background to the concept of

"postmodernist intertextuality" which I am going to present in this thesis, is

Bakhtin′s "dialogism", which has also influenced Hutcheon and McHale.

"Dialogism" points to the ambiguity that is, due to the irreducible plurality of

human experience, intrinsic to all forms of communication. Bakhtin claims

that while some literary forms seek to suppress this indeterminacy, it is

particularly prominent in the novel, which imitates the polyphony or

"heteroglossia" within society (see Holquist

Dialogism: Bakhtin and His

World

69). Literary texts, according to Bakhtin, interact with the historical

and social forces at work at the time of their production, engaging in turn in

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a dialogue with these structures. He thus comprehends literature as

political in the sense that it can actively influence the discursive

construction of society, or the "verbal-ideological world" (Holquist 146).

Historiographic metafiction and dialogism are intertextual concepts, as are,

to some extent, discourse analysis and deconstruction. Intertextual insofar

as their critique operates by placing texts in relation to other texts.

Intertextuality consequently marks a relativizing move that is in tune with

the post-structuralist and postmodernist challenging of universalist notions

of truth. I furthermore suggest that intertextuality is

the

most prominent

strategy of deconstruction within postmodernist literature, as it undermines

monolithic discourses and exposes the relativity and plurality of meaning

that postmodern theory propagates. I think it now becomes a little more

evident what I understand under the term "postmodernist intertextuality".

Firstly, postmodernist intertextuality is political and conscious. It describes

deliberate reference to other texts in order to undermine the discourses

and metanarratives that legitimate dominant power structures. It thus

differs from Julia Kristeva′s notion of intertextuality as a general attribute of

all texts. However, this concept strongly inspires postmodernist

intertextuality, since the interdependence of cultural practices is one of the

ideas it draws attention to. Nor do I adopt Kristeva′s extended idea of text

which basically includes all cultural structures ­ for the sole reason that it

is of little heuristic value ­ but retain a fairly traditional definition of text.

The main focus of this study are actual written texts, though I would

include film and other related genres and media here as well. Secondly,

these references can be to literary as well as "non-fictional" texts, because

the distinctions between philosophy, history and literature are among the

boundaries postmodernism seeks to question. Postmodernist

intertextuality challenges hegemonic discourses by confronting them with

subversive alternatives. The absolutist status of standard versions of

history is undermined by presenting contradictory accounts, received

notions of "centre" and "periphery" are questioned when the perspective of

the so-called "ex-centric" is evoked, presenting culture as a reciprocal

process. Other, often unconscious, prejudices and biases are first drawn

attention to and subsequently subverted. At the same time, postmodernist

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literature is intensely self-reflexive, flaunting the awareness of its own

textuality. In spite of that, or rather because of that, it can in turn influence

other discourses that shape our reality.

In the second part of this study, I will apply the concept of "postmodernist

intertextuality" to Mitchell′s postmodernist novel

Cloud Atlas

. Most critics

have remarked upon the novel′s intertextuality and it indeed exhibits a

dense web of intertextual references, to literary as well as theoretical text..

I suggest that the novel′s preoccupation with intertextuality can also be

seen from its innovative structural arrangement and its recurring images

and motifs. These intertextual structures will be the subject of their own

section. Many intertextual references within

Cloud Atlas

are explicit ­ the

names of Melville and Defoe, for example are mentioned in the travelogue

chapter, as are the names of Huxley and Orwell in the dystopian fifth

chapter. However, in some cases they take on the form of allusion, as in

Half Lives ­ the First Luisa Rey Mystery

whose protagonist′s name is

reminiscent of Thornton Wilder′s

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

. I am going

to analyse the effects of these different kinds of intertextuality and in how

far they correspond to postmodernist notions of textuality and history. This

part is furthermore going to examine several motifs and metaphors that

recur throughout the novel. I am going to analyse how they connect the

individual narratives and whether these repetitions indicate the existence

of an underlying pattern.

Every narrative of

Cloud Atlas

evokes a different genre, first installing and

then subverting generic conventions in order to expose their artificiality

and ideological motivations. These different forms and conventions will be

analysed in the second part of the textual analysis. Obviously, it is not

possible here to elaborate on each and every intertextual reference in the

novel, as there are too many of them and it is not my incentive to engage

in source criticism. Instead, I am going to concentrate on a number of

select texts that I consider fruitful to an intertextual reading of

Cloud Atlas

and to analyse what effects these references may have on the process of

interpretation.

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Intertextual references present a vast semantic potential that opens up the

literary text and invites the reader to participate in the construction of

meaning. In the following I will propose a reading that is strongly

influenced by the notions of postmodernism and intertextuality that I have

mentioned. As indicated by the term "reading", the interpretation at hand

does not and cannot claim objectivity, which would in fact be contrary to

the very concepts of postmodernism that I have put forth. The process

itself is highly selective and subjective. I first identify intertextual

references within the text. I am aware that many, if not all, of those

references I choose to neglect may allow for different readings, as they

open up new perspectives on the text. I furthermore assume that many

subtle intertextual references have gone unnoticed, due to a possible lack

of familiarity with the intertext. While the references are intentional and the

text provides signals that indicate either ironic distance to the quoted text

or affirmative identification, their abundance as well as the fragmentary

structure of the novel indicate a semantic openness that requires the

reader to actively engage in the process of meaning-making.

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II

Historical and Theoretical Backgrounds of Postmodernity/

Postmodernism

1. The Postmodern Condition

What is "postmodernism"? This question has been asked many times in

the past decades, resulting in almost as many definitions. The term is, as

Linda Hutcheon points out in

The Politics of Postmodernism

, very often

conflated with that of "postmodernity" (see 23-28). Though to Hutcheon

the two are intimately related, she nevertheless argues for a careful

differentiation. Postmodernity for Hutcheon designates "a social and

philosophical period or `condition′" (

The Politics of Postmodernism

23)

marked by a profoundly problematizing stance toward discourse and an

acute suspicion of ordering systems. The term "postmodernism", on the

other hand, denotes "cultural practices which acknowledge their inevitable

implication in capitalism, without relinquishing the power or will to

intervene critically in it" (Hutcheon

The Politics of Postmodernism

25). The

subversive aesthetic practices of postmodernism are thus born out of and

respond to, the socio-economic and philosophical insights of

postmodernity. The difficulty one encounters in retaining such a distinction

between "postmodernity" and "postmodernism", I would argue, underline

the intricate connection between political theory and aesthetic practice. In

the following section I will attempt a brief summary of the historical events

and theories which inspired the rise of new aesthetic forms.

"Postmodernity suggests what came after modernity; it refers to the

incipient or actual social dissolution of those social forms associated with

modernity" (Sarup, Madan

An Introductory Guide to Post-Structuralism

and Postmodernism

130). It is, however, often disputed whether

postmodernity is in fact to be regarded as a part of the era of modernity, or

rather as a radical break from it. Gregson suggests that the passage from

modernity to postmodernity resulted from a waning of the belief in modern

values and promises which rung more and more hollow in the face of the

atrocities committed during and after World War II, in particular the

holocaust (see 1).

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