David mitchell's cloud atlas: A multitude of iconic signs

Abstract

Semiotic elements pertaining to Marxist and anti-consumerist theory that are embedded in David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas forms the main topic of this thesis. Thanks to its perfectly constructed postmodern structure and its coherent themes, Cloud Atlas could be regarded as one of the most striking and thought-provoking novels of the 21st century British fiction. Although the novel consists of six stories that are completely disparate in terms of content, setting, location and genre, David Mitchell ultimately manages to create a unified whole; a grand story conveying a general message out of these six different narratives. Chapter one presents Marxist literary theory in detail with its most prominent theorists and philosophers such as Marx, Gramsci, Althusser and Terry Eagleton. Closely connected to Marxism, this chapter also scrutinizes consumerism from a Marxist perspective by referring to texts and theories from philosophers Jean Baudrillard and Zygmunt Bauman. Chapter two contains a detailed analysis of semiotics as a study and approach to literary texts. The study of semiotics is presented with the founding philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce and his successors Charles Morris, Ferdinand de Saussure and finally the contemporary author Umberto Eco. The third and last chapter begins with a general semiotic analysis of Cloud Atlas through which the connection between its semiotic structure and its general themes and ideology is revealed. In the same chapter, the specific semiotic signs that help contribute to the novel's Marxist-consumerist ideology are exposed. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the semiotic characteristics in David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas in terms of Marxist literary theory, mainly within the scope of the theme of oppression and struggle for change. To that end, this study aims to expose the specific semiotic signs that are embedded within the novel. Key Words: 21st Century British Novel, Dystopian fiction, Semiotics, Signs, Icons, Symbols, Consumerism, Science Fiction, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas.