The Conception of Power and its Reception in/through David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas

Abstract

Power, as a modern concept, has become one of the most complex and elusive notions in the contemporary culture. The question of power acquisition is no longer related to the old notion of the sovereign and the ability to control life and death as it became related to many other elements that transformed power into a much complex concept. This dissertation will attempt to focus on the conception of power and its main modes throughout Cloud Atlas’ narratives rather than the essence of such intricate concept. In order to pinpoint our research on a solid ground, firstly, this research will conceive power on the basis of two of the main relative doctrines of our time, will to power (Nietzsche) and biopower (Foucault). By adopting such views, an attempt will be taken to understand how power works and evolves within Cloud Atlas’ societies and to what extent Mitchell’s predictive fiction in An Orison of Sonmi-451 is adequate to our contemporary conception of power. Secondly, this research will explore the conception of power as an innate phenomenon within the individual by following Nietzsche’s doctrine of the Ubermensch and Freud’s psychosexual development theory to explore how an individual would evolve into the status of the Ubermensch through the three metamorphosis and a psychologically healthy individual through the different stages of psychosexual development process.