Utopia and the Contemporary British Novel PDF
Preview Utopia and the Contemporary British Novel
UTOPIA AND THE CONTEMPORARY BRITISH NOVEL Thisbookexamineshowtheexperienceoftimefunctionsinaspecific setofBritishnovelstorevealthepersistenceoftheutopianimagination in the twenty-first century. Through close textual analysis Edwards develops a new strategy of reading such anticipatory ‘fictions of the not yet’, including novels by Hari Kunzru, Maggie Gee, David Mitchell,AliSmith,JimCrace,JoannaKavenna,GraceMcCleen,Jon McGregorandClaireFuller.Readinthecontextofthephilosophical categoryofnon-contemporaneity,thesenovelsrevealasignificantnew directionintwenty-first-centuryfiction.Theirformalinventivenessand suggestively non-mimetic encounters with otherwise realist narrative representationsofcontemporaryexperienceopenuparealmofutopian possibilitythatshinesthroughinmomentsoftemporalalterity:glimpses of the future, redeemed strands of past hopes and alternative social worldsalreadyaliveinthepresent. carolineedwardsisSeniorLecturerinModern&Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck, University of London. Her work on living writershasledtotwoco-editedbooks:ChinaMiéville:CriticalEssays (2015)andMaggieGee:CriticalEssays(2015).Carolinehaspublishedin anumberofjournals,includingTelos,ModernFictionStudies,Textual Practice, ASAP/Journal, Contemporary Literature, Subjectivity, Times HigherEducationandNewStatesman.Carolineisafoundingmember oftheBritishAssociationforContemporaryLiteraryStudies(BACLS) andadirectorofthescholarlypublisherOpenLibraryofHumanities. cambridge studies in twenty-first-century literature and culture Editor PeterBoxall,UniversityofSussex As the cultural environment of the twenty-first century comes into clearer focus, CambridgeStudiesinTwenty-First-CenturyLiteratureandCulturepresentsaseries of monographs that undertakes the most penetrating and rigorous analysis of contemporary culture and thought.The series is driven by the perception that critical thinking today is in a state of transition. The global forces that produce cultural forms are entering into powerful new alignments, which demand new analyticalvocabulariesinthewakeoflatertwentieth-centurytheory. Theserieswilldemonstratethattheoryisnotsimplyafailedrevolutionarygesture that we need to move beyond, but rather brings us to the threshold of a new episteme,whichwillrequirenewtheoreticalenergytonavigate. Inthisspirit,theserieswillhostworkthatexploresthemostimportantemerging criticalcontoursofthetwenty-firstcentury,marryinginventiveandimaginative criticismwiththeoreticalandphilosophicalrigour.Theaimoftheserieswillbeto produce an enduring account of the twenty-first-century intellectual landscape thatwillnotonlystandasarecordofthecriticalnatureofourtime,butthatwill also forge new critical languages and vocabularies with which to navigate an unfolding age. In offering a historically rich and philosophically nuanced account of contemporary literature and culture, the series will stand as an enduring body of work that helps us to understand the cultural moment in whichwelive. ForthcomingBookinThisSeries: JoelEvansConceptualizingtheGlobalintheWakeofPostmodernism UTOPIA AND THE CONTEMPORARY BRITISH NOVEL CAROLINE EDWARDS BirkbeckCollege,London UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,ny10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,vic3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi–110025,India 79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108498708 doi:10.1017/9781108595568 ©CarolineEdwards2019 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2019 PrintedandboundinGreatBritainbyClaysLtd,ElcografS.p.A. AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData names:Edwards,Caroline,1983–author. title:UtopiaandthecontemporaryBritishnovel/CarolineEdwards,BirbeckCollege, London. description:NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2019.|Series:Cambridgestudiesin twenty-firstcenturyliteratureandculture|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. identifiers:lccn2019002562|isbn9781108498708 subjects:lcsh:Englishfiction–21stcentury–Historyandcriticism.|Timeinliterature.| Utopiasinliterature. classification:lccpr890.t5e392019|ddc823/.91409–dc23 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019002562 isbn978-1-108-49870-8Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. For Aelita, who has always been both with us and not yet Contents Acknowledgements pageix 1. Introduction:DailyintotheBlue 1 OursIsaTimeofProfoundUnevenness 5 OfWhomandWhatAreWeContemporaries? 12 Blue:TheColourofDistance 16 AShiverintheSpine 19 FictionsoftheNotYet 23 Something’sMissing 25 ThreeHorizons:ANoteonMethod 29 2. ReadingFictionsoftheNotYet 34 ReadingUtopia 35 ReadingTime 47 FromtheContemporarytoNon-Contemporaneity 69 3. Death:MomentsofPossibility 76 UtopiaandDeath:AnEssentialRelationship? 77 TheLoveThatIsStrongerthanDeath 80 TheDanceofDeathintheLoveliestPlaceonEarth 82 GivingVoicetotheDead:AliSmith’sHotelWorld 86 MiraculousCosmologicalTime:GraceMcCleen’sTheLand ofDecoration 94 ArrestingtheTimeofDeath:JonMcGregor’sIfNobodySpeaks ofRemarkableThings 104 4. Transmigration:NetworkingUtopianTimes 114 OurBriefTimeandtheHistoricalTimeWeCannotLive 114 NetworkedTimes 117 TowardsaNetworkedArtForm:HariKunzru’sGodsWithoutMen 119 AMatryoshkaDollofPaintedMoments:DavidMitchell’sCloudAtlas andTheBoneClocks 131 ‘AMomentofGoryApotheosis’:BirthasaWormholeinTimein JoannaKavenna’sTheBirthofLove 142 vii viii Contents 5. Apocalypse:Co-evolutionaryFutures 154 NaturalHistoricalTime 155 Apocalypse:TheArcadianRevenge? 157 PastoralPost-Apocalypticism 160 AnAmbiguousPastoralEpiphany:ClaireFuller’sOurEndless NumberedDays 163 TheProblemofTemporalExteriority:MaggieGee’sTheFlood 175 ThePresentasHistory:JimCrace’sThePesthouse 186 6. Epilogue:WorldasHome 197 Joined-UpThinking 199 TheFinalStateofNature 201 Notes 205 Bibliography 239 Index 254
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