Time and Narrative: Wolfgang Hildesheimer's Tynset and Masante.

Long, Jonathan J.

Abstract

The existing criticism of Wolfgang Hildesheimer's Tynset and Masante has categorised the narrative form of the texts as either 'musical', 'spatial', or 'stream-of-consciousness'. All three approaches, however, fail to take account of the inescapably temporal nature of narrative. This article begins by examining the thematics of temporality in Tynset and Masante. Implicit in both is a conception of time as cyclicality within linearity, the former being represented by the liturgical calendar, the latter by clock time and the imagery of entropy. The narrative techniques of the texts are then analysed to show how they encourage linear, end-directed reading whilst simultaneously impeding linear reading by means of extensive repetition. Finally, it is shown that the dynamics of narrative form provide a way of both acknowledging and combating the entropy inherent not only in the represented world, but also in the narrative enterprise itself.

Citation

Long, J. J. (1999). Time and Narrative: Wolfgang Hildesheimer's Tynset and Masante. German Life and Letters, 52(4), 457-474. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0483.00146

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 1999-10
• Journal: German Life and Letters
• Print ISSN: 0016-8777
• Publisher: Wiley
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 457-474
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0483.00146