Chronoschisms: Time, Narrative, and Postmodernism

by Ursula K. Heise

Overview

In Chronoschisms Ursula Heise explores the way developments in communication and information technology have led to the emergence of a new culture of time in Western societies. Drawing on theories of postmodernism and narratology, she shows how postmodern narratives break up the concept of plot into a spectrum of contradictory story lines that allow new conceptions of history and posthistory to emerge. This wide-ranging study offers new readings of postmodernist theory and fresh insight into the often vexing relationship between literature and science.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521555449
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/07/1997
Series:	Literature, Culture, Theory , #23
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.43(h) x 0.59(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Chronoschisms: 1. From soft clocks to hardware: narrative and the postmodern experience of time; Part II. Time Forks and Time Loops: 2. Number, chance and narrative: Julio Cortázar's Rayuela; 3. 'Repetitions, contradictions and omissions': Robbe-Grillet's Topologie d'une cité fantôme; 4. Print time: text and duration in Beckett's How It Is; Part III. Posthistories: 5. ∆t: time's assembly in Gravity's Rainbow; 6. Effect predicts cause: Brooke-Rose's Out; Epilogue: Schismatrix; Bibliography.