Chronotopos

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Chronotopos ( Greek chrónos = time; tópos = place) is a term introduced by the Russian literary scholar Mikhail Bakhtin from the theory of narration and the analysis of drama . Chronotopoi characterize the connection between the place and the passage of time of a narrative.

definition

According to Bachtin, the structuring of space and time in a story form a reciprocal and inseparable connection. They interpenetrate one another in that the space structures and dimensions the chronological movement of the narrative and, conversely, time fills the space with meaning. The Chronotopos is thus a kind of “ space-time law” that defines the conditions for the possibilities of the narrative: it forms the “world order” of a narrative, its internal system of orientation in time and space and at the same time the patterns of orientation and perception of its characters ( deixis ) .

The analysis of a narrative according to Chronotopoi thus asks where and when and their symbolic or meaningful relationship. Questions that such an investigation could ask are, for example:

  • Which locations are chosen? How are they narrated?
  • How does the narrative treat space - through travel, circular movements, standstill?
  • How does the characterization of the figures relate to their movement in space?
  • How do the sequence of events, the observations of the figures and their movements in space relate to one another?

The design of the locations and the time of a narrative is above all an important element in the characterization of the people involved and the representation of a worldview. Spaces in a narrative are not random, but symbolic, as are spatial relationships such as looks, movements, architecture, travel, etc. The connection between space and time thus constitutes the course of action and the possible actions of the characters.

The Chronotopos of a story is on the one hand a kind of “map”, on the other hand a kind of “timeline”, whereby elements of both dimensions are linked in a way that is typical for certain literary genres : Chronotopos of the baroque picaresque novel is the upside down world ; Adventure novels, on the other hand, stretch or gather space, making it a flexible form of representation, while biographical novels tend to have to adhere to the temporal and spatial conditions in the world.

In narrative research, certain symbolic places that have conventionalized functions are often referred to as chronotopoi. This could be, for example: the threshold, the gate (meeting, farewell), the court (determination, correctness, judgment), the path (life, journey, maturation), home, exile, the landscape, the crime scene, the river , the island, the ship, the lighthouse, the city, the fortress, the house, the stage, etc. Through their conventionalization, they all announce to the reader certain oppositions and courses within the plot; they direct action and time; they become meaningful and meaningful elements.

See also: heterotopia

literature

Primary literature

The basic text by Michail M. Bachtin, first published in Moscow in 1975, is available in three German editions in a translation by Michael Dewey:

  • Michail M. Bachtin: Forms of time in the novel. Studies on historical poetics , in: Studies on the poetics and theory of the novel . Edited by Edwald Kowalski and Michael Wegner. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin and Weimar 1986
  • Michail M. Bachtin: Forms of time in the novel. Studies on historical poetics. Edited by Edwald Kowalski and Michael Wegner. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-596-27418-4
  • Mikhail M. Bakhtin: Chronotopos . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-518-29479-6

Literature on Bakhtin's concept

application

  • Miriam Lay Brander: Times of space in transition. Storytelling and showing in early modern Seville . Transcript, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-8376-1759-7
  • Christoph Grube: Chronotopos and intertextual structure. On the organization of time in Eichendorff's “From the life of a good-for-nothing” with recourse to the popular book “The beautiful Magelona” , in: Markus May, Tanja Rudtke (ed.): Bachtin im Dialog. Festschrift for Jürgen Lehmann . Winter, Heidelberg 2006, ISBN 3-8253-5279-X , pp. 315–333
  • Timo Müller: Notes Toward an Ecological Conception of Bakhtin's 'Chronotope' , in: Ecozon @: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment 1.1 (2010) ( full text )
  • Uwe Spörl: The Chronotopoi of the crime novel , in: Markus May, Tanja Rudtke (ed.): Bachtin in dialogue. Festschrift for Jürgen Lehmann . Winter, Heidelberg 2006, ISBN 3-8253-5279-X , pp. 335–363 ( full text )

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