The subalternity in 'Cloud Atlas', by David Mitchell

• Grant number: 15/25282-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: October 01, 2016
• End date: February 28, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Modern Foreign Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Cláudia Maria Ceneviva Nigro
• Grantee: Davi Silistino de Souza
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Cloud Atlas (2004), novel written by the contemporary British author David Mitchell, is considered by literary criticism a modern classic that challenges traditional conceptions of genre and language. The book stands out mainly by bringing an insightful depiction of characters of subaltern groups. As subaltern examples in this narrative, it is possible to perceive, for example, slaves from Pacific tribes in the nineteenth century, homosexuals in Europe in the early twentieth century, and slaves Korean clones in the twenty-second century. From the efforts of researchers from the Indian Subaltern Studies Group, we note that the issue of subalternity, when dealing with the historiography of many countries, is silenced by the powerful voice of social and economic elite. In fact, the perspective of History can forget the marginalized classes, focusing mostly on the ruling classes. Realizing the contempt, the attack or even the silencing of the marginalized, the Subaltern Studies aim to subvert this view, exposing the importance of this subject in society, characterized in narratives through characters. The literature, although sometimes present as a platform where there is a traditional elitism covering much of the historical periods, can function as an extremely rich resource for authors, marginalized or not, to give voice to subaltern people. Thus, it is understood that the novel written by Mitchell has the opportunity to make strong criticisms on the hegemonic society of which he is in, by providing the possibility of speech to "other" characters. In order to observe how this happens in this work, Guha and Spivak (1988) will be used as theoretical foundation, in view of the in-depth study on the theories of subalternity; as well as the writings of Bakhtin (2010a and 2010b), which will serve as basis for the understanding of ideology in the discourse and to understand the multiple voices of characters (polyphony), including subalterns with no hierarchy. Therefore, we propose in this study to analyze the novel Cloud Atlas in order to observe how Mitchell presents his characters, that is, if he is, in fact, successful in changing social perspective, giving voice to marginalized characters. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

SOUZA, Davi Silistino de. The subalternity in Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. 2018. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Biociências Letras e Ciências Exatas. São José do Rio Preto São José do Rio Preto.