Time in the 21 st Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards
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Transcript of Time in the 21 st Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards
Time in the 21st Century British Novel
Dr Caroline Edwards
Lecturer in English, University of Lincoln
FICTIONS OF THE NOT YET
Writers of the Not Yet
Investigating time in fiction:
the 3 challenges(1) Overcoming the hypertrophy of memory
(2) Overcoming social atomisation
(3) Overcoming the future-as-expanded-present
Gulliver’s problem of scale, or,contemporary utopian theory
(1)immanent space of open contradiction that cannot be synthesised or reconciled
(2) a dialectical space – mediatory function between subject positions or philosophical entities
(3) textual or discursive
(4) broader and radicalised mode of political and cultural opposition to hegemonic social norms
(5) this dialectical / textual site of contradiction achieves such radical alterity not through some futural projection but concretely within the present moment itself
Bloch’s concept of the Noch Nicht (Not Yet)
The Principle of Hope, Vols. 1, 2, 3 (1938-1947) [1986]• Anticipatory consciousness (model of the preconscious –
critique of Freud)• “Real-Possible” – concrete versus abstract utopia• The “Novum” – radically new social content• Utopian temporalities – championing of process and
critique of fixity• “Warm” and “cold” streams of Marxism• Venturers Beyond the Limits
Heritage of Our Times (1935) [1991]• Ungleichzeitigkeit (non-contemporaneity)
Spirit of Utopia (1918) [2000]• Transmigration of spirit
The Philosophy of the Future (1963) [1970]Atheism in Christianity (1968) [1972]• Natural historical times
Metachronous times: Refunctioning the Noch Nicht
Adrian Leverkühn (Thomas Mann,
Doctor Faustus, 1947)
Derrida Logic of spectrality
BenjaminMessianic cessation
of time
BlochVenturers beyond the
limits
Angelus Novus(Paul Klee, 1920)
Hamlet’s ghost(Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1599-1601)
CASE STUDY 1Minor utopian moments of possibility (death)
Ali SmithHotel World
(Hamish Hamilton, 2001)
John BurnsideGlister
(Cape, 2008)
Jon McGregorIf Nobody Speaks ofRemarkable Things(Bloomsbury, 2002)
CASE STUDY 2Networking utopian moments (transmigration)
Jeanette WintersonThe PowerBook(Cape, 2000)
Marina WarnerThe Leto Bundle
(Chatto & Windus, 2001)
David MitchellCloud Atlas
(Sceptre, 2004)
CASE STUDY 3Co-evolutionary futures (post/apocalypse)
Sam TaylorThe Island at the End
Of the World (Faber, 2009)
Maggie GeeThe Flood (Saqi, 2004)
Jim CraceThe Pesthouse(Picador, 2007)
Typology | utopian “moments of possibility”
(1)Framework of a narratorial space outside of time – John Burnside’s Glister (2008), Maggie Gee’s The Flood (2004)
(2)Life after death, death within life – Ali Smith’s Hotel World (2001), Jon McGregor’s Even the Dogs (2010)
(3)Exploring the dialectic between being “stuck in time” (immanent) and “outside of time” (transcendent) – Jeanette Winterson’s The PowerBook (2000), David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten (1999)
(4)Arresting time, alternative futures – Jon McGregor’s If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (2001)
(5)Networking historical times (transmigration) – Jeanette Winterson’s The PowerBook (2000), Marina Warner’s The Leto Bundle (2001), David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten (1999) and Cloud Atlas (2005)
(6)Apocalyptic pasts and futures – Maggie Gee’s The Flood (2004), Jim Crace’s The Pesthouse (2007), Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods (2007), Sam Taylor’s The Island at the End of the World (2009)
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