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dc.contributor.advisorMackay, Peter
dc.contributor.authorHarris-Birtill, Rosemary
dc.coverage.spatialix, 397 p.en_US
dc.date.accessioned2017-12-05T14:14:21Z
dc.date.available2017-12-05T14:14:21Z
dc.date.issued2017-06-20
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/12255
dc.description.abstractThis study uses the Tibetan mandala, a Buddhist meditation aid and sacred artform, as a secular critical model by which to analyse the complete fictions of author David Mitchell. Discussing his novels, short stories and libretti, this study maps the author’s fictions as an interconnected world-system whose re-evaluation of secular belief in galvanising compassionate ethical action is revealed by a critical comparison with the mandala’s methods of world-building. Using the mandala as an interpretive tool to critique the author’s Buddhist influences, this thesis reads the mandala as a metaphysical map, a fitting medium for mapping the author’s ethical worldview. The introduction evaluates critical structures already suggested to describe the author’s worlds, and introduces the mandala as an alternative which more fully addresses Mitchell’s fictional terrain. Chapter I investigates the mandala’s cartographic properties, mapping Mitchell’s short stories as integral islandic narratives within his fictional world which, combined, re-evaluate the role of secular belief in galvanising positive ethical action. Chapter II discusses the Tibetan sand mandala in diaspora as a form of performance when created for unfamiliar audiences, reading its cross-cultural deployment in parallel with the regenerative approaches to tragedy in the author’s libretti Wake and Sunken Garden. Chapter III identifies Mitchell’s use of reincarnation as a form of non-linear temporality that advocates future-facing ethical action in the face of humanitarian crises, reading the reincarnated Marinus as a form of secular bodhisattva. Chapter IV deconstructs the mandala to address its theoretical limitations, identifying the panopticon as its sinister counterpart, and analysing its effects in number9dream. Chapter V shifts this study’s use of the mandala from interpretive tool to emerging category, identifying the transferrable traits that form the emerging category of mandalic literature within other post-secular contemporary fictions, discussing works by Michael Ondaatje, Ali Smith, Yann Martel, Will Self, and Margaret Atwood.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of St Andrews
dc.subjectDavid Mitchellen_US
dc.subjectGhostwrittenen_US
dc.subjectNumber9dreamen_US
dc.subjectCloud Atlasen_US
dc.subjectThe Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoeten_US
dc.subjectBlack Swan Greenen_US
dc.subjectThe Bone Clocksen_US
dc.subjectSlade Houseen_US
dc.subjectContemporary literatureen_US
dc.subjectEnglish literatureen_US
dc.subjectContemporary fictionen_US
dc.subjectSpeculative fictionen_US
dc.subjectBuddhismen_US
dc.subjectPost-secularen_US
dc.subjectTibetan Buddhismen_US
dc.subjectMandalaen_US
dc.subjectBodhisattvaen_US
dc.subjectAnthropoceneen_US
dc.subjectSunken Gardenen_US
dc.subjectWakeen_US
dc.subjectKlaas de Vriesen_US
dc.subjectMichel van der Aaen_US
dc.subjectMarinusen_US
dc.subjectOperaen_US
dc.subjectContemporary operaen_US
dc.subjectSand mandalaen_US
dc.subjectTibetan diasporaen_US
dc.subjectTibeten_US
dc.subjectReincarnationen_US
dc.subjectGlobalisationen_US
dc.subjectMichael Ondaatjeen_US
dc.subjectAli Smithen_US
dc.subjectYann Martelen_US
dc.subjectWill Selfen_US
dc.subjectMargaret Atwooden_US
dc.subjectReligionen_US
dc.subjectPanopticonen_US
dc.subjectPanopticismen_US
dc.subjectDerridaen_US
dc.subjectFoucaulten_US
dc.subjectJungen_US
dc.subjectŽižeken_US
dc.subjectSpivaken_US
dc.subjectBhavachakraen_US
dc.subject.lccPR6063.I785Z5H2
dc.subject.lcshMitchell, David (David Stephen)--Criticism and interpretationen
dc.titleMitchell's mandalas : mapping David Mitchell's textual universeen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.contributor.sponsorSpalding Trusten_US
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen_US
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD Doctor of Philosophyen_US
dc.publisher.institutionThe University of St Andrewsen_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.17630/10023-12255


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