A central component in the modern novel is precisely time. In addition,
James Joyce’s preoccupation with time is apparent in the following quote from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: “The past is consumed in the present and the present is living only because it brings forth the future” (Joyce;2011:187). As stated earlier, the experience of space in the modern novel is of similar significance, and is a concept that gains its meaning through the experience of the protagonist. Again, space can be difficult to discern in a modernist novel as it can shift from one reality to another in one instant.
Bakhtin’s Theory of the ‘Chronotope’
Since Bakhtin is considered to be one of the most fundamental pillars for the current study of space within narratives, the following section will be concerned with clarifying his definition of the concept of time and space, and its significance in relation to literary studies. Within his work with the novel genre and the narrative, Bakhtin discovered what he believed to be his most significant work: the dialogic interrelationship within a novel. Through his work, he established several of his concepts, including the term ‘chronotope’. The term covers a fusion of the concepts of time and space, and he used it to convey the importance of their inseparable connection within a novel. The term is composed of two Greek words, which also illustrate the aforementioned fusion: cronos, meaning time; and topos, meaning place. Chronotopes are therefore temporal and spatial indicators fused together to form an understandable whole employed to create a recognizable distinctive characteristic for a piece of literature. Bakhtin-interested scholars have worked with the chronotope in relation to music, paintings, sculptures, and so on, but this thesis will only be concerned with the chronotope in relation to literature. Bakhtin described the chronotope as being very figurative in meaning, and, in many ways, it is a very abstract concept to use in a literary analysis. Nevertheless, his theory on ‘Form of time and Chronotope in the novel’ (see picture above and to the right) can be boiled down to a distinct method applicable to more than a historical literary analysis, for which Bakhtin mostly used the theory. His above-mentioned essay is mostly concerned with the evolution of different variations of the novel in Europe. He starts with the Ancient Greek adventure novel, and ends up with the French Renaissance writer Francois Rabelais, whom Bakhtin believed to be one of the creators of the modern European novel. The most succinct definition of the chronotope that is presented in the essay shows exactly why the term is considered to be so predominantly figurative in meaning as Bakhtin in this quote describes a concept as taking on flesh and blood: “Thus the chronotope, functioning as the primary means for materializing time in space, emerges as a center for concretizing representation, as a force giving body to the entire novel. All the novel’s abstract elements – philosophical and social generalizations, ideas, analyses of cause and effect – gravitate toward the chronotope and through it take on flesh and blood, permitting the imaging power of art to do its work. Such is the representational significance of the chronotope” (Bakhtin;2011:250). A chronotope refers to the construction of a particular fictional world where a narrator is intentionally situated outside the protagonist as well as other characters, and therefore outside the story. The narrator consequently becomes the ‘other’ instead of the ‘I’ in the story. This ‘outsideness’ (Vlasov;1995:38) is necessary, according to Bakhtin, in order to create an objective and complete story, which is a believable representation of reality. It creates respect for space, time, the meaning of the story and the value thereof. For Bakhtin, this outsideness is the most important creative tool for the author, as it allows a completely objective total picture of the narrative that a subjective ‘I’ would never be able to provide: “only the presence of more than one point of view permits the hero to become ‘an aesthetically consummated phenomenon” (Vlasov;1995:39). Bakhtin also believed that the inner spatial forms should be consistent with the outer spatial forms. This means that because the outer body, the outer boundaries, the outer world, is ‘unalterable and necessarily given’ (Vlasov;1995:40), the inner spatial forms must be as well in order to create a meaningful and believable narrative. Bakhtin’s chronotope is another tool for both comprehending, and producing literary markers or indicators. Time and space are in essence categories in which human beings perceive and structure the surrounding world, where life itself and the work of art are unified in one whole and are not regarded separately. According to Bakhtin, it is crucial to note that time and space are inseparable, however emphasizing time as the primary, since time determines parts of the meaning of the spatial reference: “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” (Bakhtin;2011:85).
The Chronotope as an Analytical Tool
In his essay, Bakhtin did not provide a clear protocol for general use of his theory, and we must therefore extract one from his ideas. Although figurative, Bakhtin did deliver some concrete statements, which can be utilized in a protocol. For example, he states, with the short quote that follows on the next page that the chronotope emerges as a concrete representation in the novel, which means that it should be possible to structure a clear method for applying Bakhtin’s theory in an analysis of the primary meaning of a novel, in this case A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. So not only can the chronotope be used to determine the symbolic and figurative meaning of the novel, it can also be used to determine the specific spatial and temporal characteristics, and the significance thereof in the novel.