Science & Technology in Literature, Literary Criticism - General & Miscellaneous, Postmodernism - Literary Movements

Chronoschisms: Time, Narrative, and Postmodernism

Name: Chronoschisms: Time, Narrative, and Postmodernism
Author: Ursula K. Heise
ISBN: 9780521555449

by Ursula K. Heise, Richard Macksey (Editor), Anthony Cascardi

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Overview

In Chronoschisms Ursula Heisse explores the way developments in communication and information technology have led to the emergence of a new culture of time in Western socities. 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 allowing new conceptions of history and posthistory to emerge. This wideranging study offers new readings of postmodernist theory and fresh insight into the often vexed relationship between literature and science.

Synopsis

In Chronoschisms Ursula Heise explores the way developments in transportation, communication and information technology have led to the emergence of a different culture of time in Western societies. The radical transformation in our understanding and experience of time has also profoundly affected the structure of the novel. Heisse argues that postmodern novels are centrally concerned with the possibility of experiencing time in an age when temporal horizons have been drastically foreshortened. 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. The coexistence of these competing experiences of time then allows new conceptions of history and posthistory to emerge, and opens up comparisons with recent scientific approaches to temporality. This wide-ranging study offers readings of postmodernist theory and fresh insight into the often vexed relationship between literature and science.