2.4. Chronotope Analysis C h r o n o t o p e is a composite category consisting of two
interrelated components: t e x t s p a c e (l o c a l i t y) and t e x t
t i m e (t e m p o r a l i t y). The terms naming both components
are to some extent pitfalls for the researcher. The l o c a l i t y should
not be confused with l o c a t i o n – the unity of the narrator with text
space and time (models like “I – here – now” or “I – there – then”).
Location, therefore, is not a constituent of chronotope, but an even more
composite category, a combination of chronotope and topic. T e x t
t i m e is not to be confused with grammatical t e n s e s of the verbs
in the text, though they are of course related to it, being a part of its
realization (representation), one of the markers of text time.
The locality and temporality have similar ways of realization, both
in language and in speech (and, therefore, in a text). Both
a table and
a day can be called
long or
short . In English we can say “
The train arrived half an hour late” and “At last our
holidays arrived ”. Cf. also
the following: “
October welcomed Mr John to talk to us on his products”
and “
Kremlin welcomed the three presidents to meet Mr. Putin”.
There are two common oppositions of text space and text time:
objective/subjective and static/dynamic. Within the objective space, one
can find a specific sub-type of conceptual space. Symmetrically, within
the subjective space a sub-type of fiction space is distinguished.
Exercise 39. Try to define what the chronotope is with the help of
the following text. Refer to the works of M. M. Bakhtin if possible.
Nele Bemong & Pete Borhart Bakhtin’s Theory of the Literary Chronotope: