Chronoschisms Time, Narrative, and Postmodernism

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.

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.

An analysis of way developments in technology have transformed our understanding of time and affected the structure of the novel. This wide-ranging study offers readings of postmodernist theory the relationship between literature and science.