Poetics of Empowerment in David Mitchell’s Novels

Eva-Maria Windberger is a postdoctoral researcher in the field of British literature and culture at the University of Trier. In 2020, she completed a Ph.D. thesis exploring strategies and functions of empowerment in the novels of David Mitchell. She is co-editor (with Ralf Hertel) of the volume Empowering Contemporary Fiction: The Impact of Empowerment in Literary Studies (2021). Her current research project focuses on the performativity of East Asian identities on the British stage.

• Acknowledgements 1 Introduction2 A Poetics of Empowerment?Zooming in on Empowerment: Concepts and Contexts Empowerment and Literature3 Empowering Discourse"All Boundaries Are Conventions": David Mitchell’s Literary PlaygroundChapters in an Über-book: Understanding Mitchell’s Fictional Universe4 Empowering CharactersFrom Subjugation to Emancipation: Journeys of Empowerment in Cloud AtlasPolitics, Playground Bullies, Poetry: Empowerment in Black Swan GreenCulture and Genre Clashes: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet5 Empowering ReadersReader-Response Theory, Empathy, Cognition, and Agency David Mitchell’s Novels and the Role of the Reader 6 Conclusion: Towards a Poetics of EmpowermentIndex