Phenomenological Writing in the Fiction of David Mitchell J Du Plessis
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Phenomenological writing in the fiction of David Mitchell J du Plessis orcid.org 0000-0002-8130-7017 Dissertation accepted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in English at the North-West University Supervisor: Dr HDG Laurie Graduation: May 2020 Student number: 24424218 i TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ VI ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ VII OPSOMMING ........................................................................................................................ VIII NOTES ON REFERENCING .................................................................................................... IX CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Contextualisation ............................................................................................. 1 1.1.1 Research questions ............................................................................................ 9 1.2 The literature on phenomenology and fictional worlds ............................... 10 1.3 Texts that make up of the macronovel .......................................................... 12 1.3.1 Ghostwritten (1999) .......................................................................................... 12 1.3.2 Number9dream (2001) ..................................................................................... 13 1.3.3 Cloud Atlas (2004) ............................................................................................ 14 1.3.4 Black Swan Green (2006) ................................................................................. 15 1.3.5 The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010) ............................................. 15 1.3.6 The Bone Clocks (2014) ................................................................................... 16 1.3.7 Slade House (2015) .......................................................................................... 18 1.4 Brief outline of the argument ......................................................................... 18 CHAPTER 2 THE THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF A PHENOMENOLOGICAL FICTION ....... 19 2.1 Phenomenology and text ............................................................................... 19 2.1.1 The phenomenological reduction ...................................................................... 22 2.1.1.1 The natural attitude ........................................................................................... 23 ii 2.1.1.2 The phenomenological attitude ......................................................................... 24 2.1.1.3 Accessing the phenomenological attitude ......................................................... 25 2.1.1.4 The phenomenological reduction and the text .................................................. 27 2.1.2 Being ................................................................................................................ 30 2.1.3 Intentionality ..................................................................................................... 36 2.1.3.1 Parts and wholes .............................................................................................. 39 2.1.3.2 Identity in manifold ............................................................................................ 39 2.1.3.3 Presences and absences ................................................................................. 41 2.1.3.4 Formal structures and construction of a fictional world ...................................... 42 2.1.4 Temporality ....................................................................................................... 43 2.2 Working towards a fictional lifeworld............................................................ 47 CHAPTER 3 PHENOMENOLOGY AND GHOSTWRITTEN................................................... 52 3.1 Prefiguration and access to Ghostwritten .................................................... 52 3.1.1 The phenomenological reduction ...................................................................... 54 3.1.2 Being – the nature of the world, the character, and the reader .......................... 56 3.1.3 Intentionality, formal structures, and construction of the fictional world ............. 56 3.1.4 Temporality, narration, and the structure of the text .......................................... 58 3.2 Expanding the sample .................................................................................... 58 3.2.1 Hyperlinking the thematic elements .................................................................. 62 3.2.2 Narrative temporality – character versus reader experiences ........................... 63 3.2.3 Temporal Being and the fictional world ............................................................. 68 3.2.4 Incompleteness, hyperlinks, and the formal structures ...................................... 74 iii 3.3 Translating Ghostwritten into phenomenological terms ............................. 77 3.4 Phenomenology in Ghostwritten ................................................................... 83 CHAPTER 4 EXPLORING THE MACRONOVEL ................................................................... 84 4.1 Narrative parts and the hyperlink function ................................................... 84 4.1.1 Categorising the hyperlinks by function ............................................................ 85 4.1.1.1 Hyperlinking between non-identifying and non-identifying connective parts ...... 86 4.1.1.2 Hyperlinking between identifying and non-identifying connective parts ............. 88 4.1.1.3 Non-connective identifying parts ....................................................................... 89 4.1.2 Recurring characters as hyperlinks ................................................................... 90 4.1.2.1 Prefiguration – variations of reading sequence and character encounters ........ 95 4.2 Reading order and the temporal construction ........................................... 100 4.2.1 Considering a narrative part as a narrative whole ........................................... 101 4.2.2 Ordering narrative parts into narrative wholes................................................. 104 4.2.2.1 First reading – from Quasar to Prescients ....................................................... 105 4.2.2.2 Second reading – from Quasar to Valleysmen ................................................ 107 4.2.2.3 Third reading – adding and removing texts ..................................................... 109 4.2.3 Hyperlinks and temporality.............................................................................. 110 4.2.3.1 Structural circularity and continuity ................................................................. 117 4.3 The temporal construction of the macronovel ........................................... 118 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION – PHENOMENOLOGICAL FICTION ...................................... 121 5.1 Writing a phenomenological world ............................................................. 121 5.2 The time and narrative of the macronovel .................................................. 126 iv 5.3 Recommendations for further studies ........................................................ 129 REFERENCE LIST ............................................................................................................... 130 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I hereby acknowledge with gratitude the financial assistance of the National Research Foundation, The North-West University’s Postgraduate Financial Support Department, and The Research Unit: Languages and Literature in the South African Context at the North-West University’s Potchefstroom Campus. Views expressed and conclusions reached in this study should be ascribed to the author and are not necessarily shared by any of these institutions. I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Henri Laurie, for his constant guidance and advice throughout this study. Without a supervisor, a postgraduate student is lost. Similarly, without the support of Prof Attie de Lange and Prof Nicholas Meihuizen for reading my work, and giving me peace of mind when I needed it most. Thank you for always being there for students, no matter how busy you both are at the time. Furthermore, without the constant support of the Research Unit: Languages and Literature in the South African Context, this study would not be possible. In this regard, I would like to thank the acting director, Prof Phil van Schalkwyk, and the administrative staff, Elsa van Tonder and Nicoline Gerber, without whom I would not have managed to complete this study. All three of you go above beyond your duties to ensure the well-being of students. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends, who have always been understanding when I neglected them, so I can work on my research. You are the best family and friends anyone could ask for. To my mother and father: thank you for getting me this far in life. To Lenté Dreyer: thank you for forcing me into timely breaks, so I could retain my sanity. To my co-musketeers, Gert Coetzer and Charika Swanepoel: the collegial support-system we share with each other is unprecedented. Thank you for keeping me out of the dreaded isolation postgrads tend to fall into. vi ABSTRACT As the academic