Teaching & Learning Guide for: Making Time: Narrative Temporality in Twentieth‐Century Literature and Theory

Authors’ Introduction Poised at the beginning of the twentieth century, F. T. Marinetti claimed in his 1909 ‘Futurist Manifesto’: We are on the furthest promontory of the ages! ... Why should we be looking back over our shoulders, if what we desire is to smash down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We are living already in the realms of the Absolute, for we have already created infinite, omnipresent speed. (14) Scholars have long noted that major scientific discoveries during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including Einstein's theory of relativity, as well as new technological innovations such as the railway, the telegraph, and the cinema brought into question and, for some, radically altered the traditional Western concept of time as stable and objectively measurable. This change is reflected in the work of early modernist writers, who consciously explored alternative notions of time, and avant‐garde and postmodern writers further extended these experiments. By tracing how these early literary experiments with time developed over the course of the twentieth century, this article not only reflects the persistence of our interest in questions of time but also opens for consideration the question of how literature and literary theory have actively contributed to our still changing conception of time and how we perceive it. Authors Recommend: Karen Newman, Jay Clayton, and Marianne Hirsch, eds., Time and the Literary (New York: Routledge, 2002). This edition contains essays on philosophical, cybernetic, and scientific concepts of time and their applications to literature. Especially recommended is Clayton's essay on ‘Genome Time’. C. S. Patrides, ed., Aspects of Time (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976). A worthwhile collection and Richard Schechner's essay, ‘There's Lots of Time in Godot ’ is very useful. Ricardo Quinones, The Renaissance Discovery of Time (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972). Quinones describes the historical, social, and technological backgrounds to the understanding of time in the West since the Renaissance. This provides a good lead in to Stephen Kern's account of conceptions of time since 1880, as well as way in to Shakespearean chronologies. Brian Richardson, ‘ “Time is Out of Joint”: Narrative Models and the Temporality of the Drama’, Poetics Today 8 (1987): 299–310. Richardson examines time in drama. Ursula Heise, Chronoschims: Time, Narrative, and Postmodernism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). This is the best book‐length study of postmodern temporality. Wyndham Lewis, Time and Western Man (Santa Rasa, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1993 [1927]). Lewis provides a dissenting (indeed, eccentric) contemporary response to what he called ‘the time children’. David Carr, Time, Narrative, and History (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986). Carr gives a suggestive approach to time in historical narratives from the perspective of European philosophy (especially Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau‐Ponty). Online Materials: http://www.studyoftime.org The International Society for the Study of Time This link will allow you to access their journal, KronoScope , papers from their conference, and reviews of recent books on time. http://narrative.georgetown.edu/ International Society for the Study of Narrative The ISSN is a non‐profit organization dedicated to the study of narrative in various kinds of media. Visit their Web site for access to the ISSN's journal, Narrative , teaching resources, and wiki. http://www.columbia.edu/~bwr2001/papers/selectivity.pdf Bruce Robbins, ‘Temporizing: Time and Politics in the Humanities and Human Rights’. boundary 2 32.1 (Spring 2005): 191–208. Robbins's article discusses the concept of time within the context of issues of ethics, forgiveness, and restitution. Exploring the intersection between differing concepts of temporality, human rights discourse, and the humanities, he argues in favour of what he calls a ‘ “progressive” temporality’ that makes recovery and reconciliation possible. http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/pomo.html The Po‐Mo Page: Postmodern, Postmodernism, Postmodernity Created by Martin Irvine at Georgetown University, this site offers an explanation of the two major movements in Western literature in the twentieth century, modernism and postmodernism, including changing notions of narrative and narrative form. http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/andrews__stir_fry_texts.html Interesting Digital Experiments with Time and Narrative: Stir Fry Texts by Jim Andrews Stir Fry Texts is a digital work of art based on postmodern experiments with textual and visual ‘cut ups’, similar to those produced by William S. Burroughs and Salvador Dali. http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/holeton__frequently_asked_questions_about_hypertext.html Frequently Asked Questions about ‘Hypertext’ by Richard Holeton Using a narrative model similar to that of Nabokov's Pale Fire , Holeton's Frequently Asked Questions about ‘Hypertext’ requires readers to reconstruct the chronology of a story from episodes recounted in critical commentary on a primary text.

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