Chronotope: Difference between revisions

In [[literary theory]] and [[philosophy of language]], the '''chronotope''' is how configurations of time and space are represented in [[language]] and [[discourse]]. The term was taken up by Russian literary scholar [[Mikhail Bakhtin]] who used it as a central element in his theory of meaning in language and literature. The term itself comes from the Russian {{lang|ru|xронотоп}}, which in turn is derived from the Greek ''{{lang|grc|χρόνος}}'' ('[[time]]') and ''{{lang|grc|τόπος}}'' ('[[space]]'); it thus can be literally translated as "time-space." Bakhtin developed the term in his 1937 essay "Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel" («{{lang|ru|Формы времени и хронотопа в романе}}»). Here Bakhtin showed how different literary genres operated with different configurations of time and space, which gave each genre its particular narrative character.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bakhtin|first=M.|year=1981|chapter=Forms of time and of the chronotope in the novel|title=[[The Dialogic Imagination]]|pages=84–258|location=Austin|publisher=Univ. Texas Press}}</ref>

 

{{quote|text=We will give the name ''chronotope'' (literally, 'time space') to the intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships that are artistically expressed in literature. This term [space-time] is employed in mathematics, and was introduced as part of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. The special meaning it has in relativity theory is not important for our purposes; we are borrowing it for literary criticism almost as a metaphor (almost, but not entirely). What counts for us is the fact that it expresses the inseparability of space and time (time as the fourth dimension of space). We understand the chronotope as a formally constitutive category of literature; we will not deal with the chronotope in other areas of culture. {{pb}} In the literary artistic chronotope, spatial and temporal indicators are fused into one carefully thought-out, concrete whole. Time, as it were, thickens, takes on flesh, becomes artistically visible; likewise, space becomes charged and responsive to the movements of time, plot and history. This intersection of axes and fusion of indicators characterizes the artistic chronotope. {{pb}} The chronotope in literature has an intrinsic ''generic'' significance. It can even be said that it is precisely the chronotope that defines genre and generic distinctions, for in literature the primary category in the chronotope is time. The chronotope as a formally constitutive category determines to a significant degree the image of man in literature as well. The image of man is always intrinsically chronotopic.<ref name=chrono>{{cite book

|last=Bakhtin

|translator-last1=Emerson

|translator-first1=Caryl

Linguistic anthropologist [[Keith Basso]] invoked "chronotopes" in discussing Western [Apache] stories linked with places. In the 1980s when Basso was writing, geographic features reminded the [[Western Apache]] of "the moral teachings of their history" by recalling to mind events that occurred there in important moral narratives. By merely mentioning "it happened at [the place called] 'men stand above here and there,'" storyteller Nick Thompson could remind locals of the dangers of joining "with outsiders against members of their own community." Geographic features in the Western Apache landscape are chronotopes, Basso says, in precisely the way Bakhtin defines the term when he says they are "points in the geography of a community where time and space intersect and fuse. Time takes on flesh and becomes visible for human contemplation; likewise, space becomes charged and responsive to the movements of time and history and the enduring character of a people. ...Chronotopes thus stand as monuments to the community itself, as symbols of it, as forces operating to shape its members' images of themselves" (qtd. in Basso 1984: 44–45).

 

 

The chronotope has also been adopted for the analysis of classroom events and conversations, for example by Raymond Brown and [[Peter Renshaw]] in order to view "student participation in the classroom as a dynamic process constituted through the interaction of past experience, ongoing involvement, and yet-to-be-accomplished goals" (2006: 247–259). Kumpulainen, Mikkola, and Jaatinen (2013) examined the space–time configurations of students’ technology-mediated creative learning practices over a year-long school musical project in a Finnish elementary school. The findings of their study suggest that "blended practices appeared to break away from traditional learning practices, allowing students to navigate in different time zones, spaces, and places with diverse tools situated in their formal and informal lives" (2013: 53).

*[[Literary Theory]]

*[[Philosophy of Language]]

 

== Notes ==