Dispersed narration of the new cosmopolitan novel: David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

Abstract

The ever-increasing body of contemporary cosmopolitan theory, partly inspired by globalisation and globalisation theory, focuses on various aspects of literary and artistic cosmopolitanism since antiquity. It concerns itself especially with the so-called new cosmopolitanism whose development was primarily marked by two events: the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. Among the key foci of interest in cosmopolitan theory is the cosmopolitan novel, characterised by urban and virtual spaces as sites of global circulations, the overcoming of traditional ideas of community and fragmented, yet cohesive kaleidoscopic narration. This article aims at analysing the dispersed narration and narrative structure of the cosmopolitan novel by and narrative structure by discussing Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, a pioneer of the new cosmopolitan fiction in the 21st century. The idea is to explore the nature of narration in the novel, its meaning and effects, all of which point to a pressing need to reconsider our perception of a host of subversive and transgressive narrative techniques and strategies used in the novel today.