Chronotope

Chronotope (Greek chronos = time; tópos = place ) is a term introduced by the Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin concept of narrative theory and drama analysis. Chronotopoi characterize the relationship between the place and the time course of a narrative.

Definition

The structuring of space and time in a narrative form a reciprocal and inseparable connection according to Bakhtin. They penetrate each other by the space divided the chronological movement of the narrative and dimensioned and vice versa satisfies the time the space with meaning. The chronotope is thus a kind of " space-time legalism " that specifies the terms of the possibilities of the story: he in a sense constitutes the "world order" of a story, its internal system of orientation in time and space and also the orientation and patterns of perception of her characters ( deixis ).

Analysis of a short story by Chronotopoi therefore asks for the Where and When and their symbolic or of meaningful relationship. Questions that could provide such an investigation are, for example:

Which locations are chosen? How are they developed narrative?
As the narrative treats the room - through travel, circular motions, still?
What is the characterization of the characters behave to their movement in the room?
How does the sequence of events, the observations of the characters and their movements in space relate to each other?

The design of the sites and the time of narration is especially an important element in the characterization of persons acting in concert and the presentation of a worldview. Rooms in a story are not random, but symbolically, as well as spatial relationships glances, movements, architecture, travel, etc. The relationship of space and time thus constituted the course of action and freedom of action of the figures.

The chronotope of a narrative is thus on the one hand a kind of "map", on the other hand, a kind of " timeline ", where elements of both dimensions in a manner linked together, which is typical of certain literary genres: chronotope of the baroque picaresque novel is the world upside down; Adventure novels in turn stretch or gather the room, make it a flexible form of representation, while biographical novels must rather hold on temporal- spatial conditions in the world.

In the narrative research are often certain symbolic places that have conventionalized functions, referred to as Chronotopoi. That may be about: the threshold, the gate ( meeting, farewell), the court (definition, accuracy, judgment ), the way (life, travel, maturation ), the home, the exile, the landscape, the scene, the river, the island, the ship, the lighthouse, the town, the fortress, the house, the stage, etc. They all denounce the reader through their conventionalization already certain oppositions and gradients within the plot on; they direct action and time; they become meaningful bearing and sinnstrukturierenden elements.