Building Cosmopolitan Futures: Global Fragility in the Fiction of David Mitchell

Abstract

The unprecedented spread of globalization has led to thematic developments in contemporary British literature and the emergence of authors who reveal a new cultural identity for the post-millennium. David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas (2004. London: Sceptre) and Ghostwritten ([1999] 2000.London:Sceptre) question humanity's progress and capacity for ethical practices in a globalized world, blurring several literary genres so as to act as anticipatory allegories for the accelerating present. Mitchell suggests communal association and socio-cultural engagement are now necessities, in order to face the challenges of an increasingly interdependent planet which has transnational connections. And yet, ties are not merely forged between transnational individuals, but also between humans and clones across temporal and spatial divides, creating a pragmatic and realizable trans-human future for all. Mitchell's globe-trotting narratives will be shown to offer a new planetary form and structure to reflect the convergence culture of the twenty-first century, with the transnational narrative strands coalescing to form a ‘macro-novel’ of communal interconnection, interaction and co-operation, offering an escape from the ‘broken history’ of the past. This article will therefore examine and identify how cosmopolitan ideals in twenty-first century literature offer a tentative optimism in the face of a fragile and uncertain future.