This study traces the connection of infinity and Levinasian ethics in 21st-century fiction. It
tackles the paradox of how infinity can be (re-)presented in the finite space between the
covers of a book and finds an answer that combines conceptual metaphor theory with concepts
from classical narratology and beyond such as mise en abyme textual circularity
intertextuality or omniscient narration. It argues that texts with such structures may be
conceptualised as infinite via Lakoff and Núñez's Basic Metaphor of Infinity. The catachrestic
transfer of infinity from structure to text means that the texts themselves are understood to
be infinite. Taking its cue from the central role of the infinite in Emmanuel Levinas's ethics
the function of such 'fictions of infinity' turns out to be ethical: infinite textuality
disrupts reading patterns and calls into question the reader's spontaneity to interpret. This
hypothesis is put to the test in detailed readings of four 21st-century novels David
Mitchell's Cloud Atlas Jeanette Winterson's The Stone Gods Ian McEwan's Saturday and John
Banville's The Infinities. This book thus combines ethical criticism with structural aesthetics
to uncover ethical potential in fiction.
