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Time in the 21 st Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards

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FICTIONS OF THE NOT YET. Time in the 21 st Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards Lecturer in English, University of Lincoln [email protected]. Writers of the Not Yet. Investigating time in fiction: the 3 challenges. (1) Overcoming the hypertrophy of memory. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Time in the 21 st Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards Lecturer in English, University of Lincoln [email protected] FICTIONS OF THE NOT YET
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Page 1: 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

[email protected]

FICTIONS OF THE NOT YET

Page 2: Time in the 21 st  Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards

Writers of the Not Yet

Page 3: Time in the 21 st  Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards

Investigating time in fiction:

the 3 challenges(1) Overcoming the hypertrophy of memory

(2) Overcoming social atomisation

(3) Overcoming the future-as-expanded-present

Page 4: Time in the 21 st  Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards

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

Page 5: Time in the 21 st  Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards

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

Page 6: Time in the 21 st  Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards

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)

Page 7: Time in the 21 st  Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards

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)

Page 8: Time in the 21 st  Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards

CASE STUDY 2Networking utopian moments (transmigration)

Jeanette WintersonThe PowerBook(Cape, 2000)

Marina WarnerThe Leto Bundle

(Chatto & Windus, 2001)

David MitchellCloud Atlas

(Sceptre, 2004)

Page 9: Time in the 21 st  Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards

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)

Page 10: Time in the 21 st  Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards

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)

Page 11: Time in the 21 st  Century British Novel Dr Caroline Edwards

If you liked this, you might also like…

What Happens Now: 21st Century Writing in English

16-18 July 2012, University of Lincoln

Weird Council: An International Conference on the Writing of China Miéville15 September 2012, Birkbeck, University of London

Maggie Gee Conference30-31 August 2012, University of St Andrews


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