Perpetual Apocalypses: David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and the Absence of Time

David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas (2004) approaches the tradition of apocalyptic writing from a unique angle in that it refuses to submit to the linearity of temporal developments. Drawing on postcolonialism, environmentalism, and technological disasters, Mitchell implies that the kind of apocalypse...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inCritique - Bolingbroke Society Vol. 56; no. 4; pp. 345 - 354
Main Author Bayer, Gerd
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington Routledge 08.08.2015
Taylor & Francis Inc
Subjects
apocalyptic writing
British & Irish literature
Cloud Atlas
David Mitchell
Disasters
dystopia
English literature
Environmentalism
History
Literary criticism
Mitchell, David (David Stephen)
Novels
Postcolonialism
Technology
Writers
Writing
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas (2004) approaches the tradition of apocalyptic writing from a unique angle in that it refuses to submit to the linearity of temporal developments. Drawing on postcolonialism, environmentalism, and technological disasters, Mitchell implies that the kind of apocalypse traditionally envisioned as an event to be encountered in the future is already taking place. His novel casts any historical present as fundamentally marked by catastrophic developments.
ISSN:0011-1619
1939-9138
DOI:10.1080/00111619.2014.959645