Geography of the Narrative Self in Stuart Turton’s The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Speculative fiction can engage with unresolved philosophical debates about embodied consciousness and personal identity. An analysis of Stuart Turton's novel The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle integrates neuroscientific, narrative self, pre-narrative self-consciousness, embodied narrative, transpersonal psychology, and Eastern philosophical concepts. The protagonist's behavior is influenced by emotions, skills, and reasoning temporarily acquired from each host's body and mind. The narrative constructs a complex geography of personal identity, suggesting that consciousness persists independently of specific embodiment while remaining fundamentally shaped by bodily experience. The paper advocates for alternative approaches to selfhood and embodied consciousness through speculative fiction.

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Abstract

This paper examines how Stuart Turton's The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (2018) engages in ongoing debates concerning embodied consciousness and personal identity yet to be resolved by current theories linking mind and body. The analysis integrates a neuroscientific approach (Greenfield), narrative self theory (Dennett, Schechtman), pre-narrative self-consciousness (Zahavi), embodied narrative (Brandon), transpersonal psychology (Grof), and Eastern philosophical concepts (Blackmore, Watts) with close textual analysis to study how Turton's protagonist navigates self-definition across multiple bodily experiences. His behaviour and actions are influenced by emotions, skills and reasoning that he perceives as temporarily acquired from the body and mind of his current 'host’. Although initially it may appear paradoxical, Turton's narrative constructs a complex geography of personal identity, suggesting that consciousness persists independently of specific embodiment, while remaining fundamentally shaped by bodily experience. This paper examines the capacity of speculative fiction to engage with philosophical problems of the mind-body relationship and to advocate for alternative approaches to selfhood and embodied consciousness.