Mortality and probability: philosophical considerations in selected contemporary British and Irish literature
There has been a noticeable increase in the preoccupation with death in contemporary British and Irish literature. As the 21st century human struggles to find meaning in a world that is increasingly saturated with technological advancements, the human necessarily struggles with the fact that death i...
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| Format: | Thesis-Master by Research |
| Language: | English |
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Nanyang Technological University
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159536 |
| _version_ | 1826130689435631616 |
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| author | Lai, Zaneta Zhi Yan |
| author2 | Neil Murphy |
| author_facet | Neil Murphy Lai, Zaneta Zhi Yan |
| author_sort | Lai, Zaneta Zhi Yan |
| collection | NTU |
| description | There has been a noticeable increase in the preoccupation with death in contemporary British and Irish literature. As the 21st century human struggles to find meaning in a world that is increasingly saturated with technological advancements, the human necessarily struggles with the fact that death is the one inevitable and irrefutable truth of life. This contemporary preoccupation with death is identified to be most potently conveyed in two main themes – mortality and probability. In analysing four texts by four authors - David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten, Ali Smith’s Artful, Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones, and Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, this thesis seeks to portray that death can be reworked as a compassionate and comforting thought instead of the conventionally bleak end of existence. While the mortal human is limited by numbers and probabilities such as time and age, this thesis also seeks to assert that mortality and probability can be cooperative rather than antithetical, with the latter providing a remedy of infinitude to the former. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T08:00:22Z |
| format | Thesis-Master by Research |
| id | ntu-10356/159536 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T08:00:22Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | Nanyang Technological University |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1595362023-03-11T20:17:05Z Mortality and probability: philosophical considerations in selected contemporary British and Irish literature Lai, Zaneta Zhi Yan Neil Murphy School of Humanities CAMurphy@ntu.edu.sg Humanities::Literature There has been a noticeable increase in the preoccupation with death in contemporary British and Irish literature. As the 21st century human struggles to find meaning in a world that is increasingly saturated with technological advancements, the human necessarily struggles with the fact that death is the one inevitable and irrefutable truth of life. This contemporary preoccupation with death is identified to be most potently conveyed in two main themes – mortality and probability. In analysing four texts by four authors - David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten, Ali Smith’s Artful, Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones, and Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, this thesis seeks to portray that death can be reworked as a compassionate and comforting thought instead of the conventionally bleak end of existence. While the mortal human is limited by numbers and probabilities such as time and age, this thesis also seeks to assert that mortality and probability can be cooperative rather than antithetical, with the latter providing a remedy of infinitude to the former. Master of Arts 2022-06-23T01:30:37Z 2022-06-23T01:30:37Z 2022 Thesis-Master by Research Lai, Z. Z. Y. (2022). Mortality and probability: philosophical considerations in selected contemporary British and Irish literature. Master's thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159536 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159536 en This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). application/pdf Nanyang Technological University |
| spellingShingle | Humanities::Literature Lai, Zaneta Zhi Yan Mortality and probability: philosophical considerations in selected contemporary British and Irish literature |
| title | Mortality and probability: philosophical considerations in selected contemporary British and Irish literature |
| title_full | Mortality and probability: philosophical considerations in selected contemporary British and Irish literature |
| title_fullStr | Mortality and probability: philosophical considerations in selected contemporary British and Irish literature |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mortality and probability: philosophical considerations in selected contemporary British and Irish literature |
| title_short | Mortality and probability: philosophical considerations in selected contemporary British and Irish literature |
| title_sort | mortality and probability philosophical considerations in selected contemporary british and irish literature |
| topic | Humanities::Literature |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159536 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT laizanetazhiyan mortalityandprobabilityphilosophicalconsiderationsinselectedcontemporarybritishandirishliterature |