Why Literary Time Is Measured in Minutes

Underwood, Ted

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/100076 Copy

Description

Title

Why Literary Time Is Measured in Minutes

Author(s)

Underwood, Ted

Issue Date

2018

Keyword(s)

• fiction
• narrative pace
• distant reading
• scene and summary

Abstract

Brief crystallizing moments have come to seem more distinctively literary than time measured in months or years. Where did we get that critical assumption? This essay traces it back to changes in the pacing of fiction itself. But the changes at stake are not themselves easily crystallized into a moment of revolutionary transformation. In English-language fiction, at least, they seem on the contrary to have sprawled across several centuries. It thus turns out that we need a longue durée, even to understand the literary history of anecdotes and gem-like moments.

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/100076

Sponsor(s)/Grant Number(s)

Sponsored by SSHRC via NovelTM.

Owning Collections