And space. Then Albert Einstein drew attention to the continuity and infinity of the space-time continuum.

In Russia, the concept of chronotope was used by the famous physiologist Ukhtomsky. He combined words of Greek origin: chronos - “time” and “topos” - place. And after him, the philologist and literary critic M. M. Bakhtin used the concept.

What is a chronotope in literature?

The concept of “chronotope” was introduced into literary criticism by Mikhail Bakhtin. However, in literature this word has a different meaning. In his article, where the philologist examined the meaning of time and space in literary works, starting with ancient epics, the scientist mentioned that he uses the concept of chronotope metaphorically. He focused specifically on the inseparability of these concepts. The plot of the work depends significantly on the time chosen by the author.

Chronotope is the unity of place and time in a literary work. The writer must introduce the characters and events at the chosen time correctly. Artistically describing the time and place of each scene is an important task, and if a novice writer fails to cope with it, the text will be damp and difficult to read.

According to the thoughts of Mikhail Bakhtin, time is the leading characteristic of the chronotope. Space only concretizes and complements. Space and objects in space make time tangible. Each point in time becomes visible thanks to material space and the course of events in it.

Bakhtin's article on chronotopes

In his article “Forms of time and chronotope in the novel,” the scientist analyzes the description of time and actions within space in several works. Mention is made of “The Golden Ass” by Apuleius, which has come down from antiquity in full, the famous novel by Dante Alighieri, the novel “Gargantua and Pantagruel” by F. Rabelais, and others. There are 10 chapters in Bakhtin's work. In the last, 10th chapter, the literary critic describes the forms of the chronotope and the content that is often contained in them.

Mikhail Bakhtin combined philological and philosophical research in his works. Thanks to the analysis of chronotopes, it is much easier for modern writers to build a plot.

Forms of time and chronotope in the novel

If the world of a work is completely mystical, it should be well described. A reader cannot be fully immersed in a story or novel if the description of that world lacks important details or if the narrative contains unforgivable logical errors.

So, what worlds did Bakhtin describe? The era of the story greatly influences the character and the course of events. Let us describe the forms of chronotope identified by Bakhtin.

• Roads. Strangers may meet on the road, a conversation may begin and a story may begin.
• Castle. The novel will feature drama related to the family past. Most likely, the narrative space is limited. Castles always describe the feudal past, mentioning great personalities - kings, dukes. There are galleries with portraits, valuables, and expensive antiques in the story. The plot can unfold around the trampled right of inheritance or a knightly confrontation, or the defense of the dignity of a knight and his lady.
• Living room. This chronotope is clearly manifested in Balzac's novels. Living rooms are the birthplace of specific salon intrigues; this is an analysis of the characters’ characters and a search for context in actions.
• A provincial quiet town. The description of the city and its inhabitants assumes a closed space where the passage of time is almost not described, since in the province everything goes on as usual and nothing changes.
• threshold. This is a metaphorical space-time, where the novel is based on a crisis situation. On the “threshold” a story is built where there is no biography of the hero. Here the problem of a turning point in the consciousness of society arises acutely.

These chronotopes prevailed in the novels of bygone eras. The scientific article was published at the beginning of the 20th century, but the fantastic chronotopes that are popular today have not yet been covered.

Idyllic or folklore chronotope

Separately, it is necessary to mention the folklore chronotope, to which Bakhtin devoted an entire chapter. The idyll can be divided into 2 parts:

• Family-idyllic chronotope. This is an idyll that is always tied to the natural region where the hero and his great-grandfathers grew up. Human life is always inseparably linked with nature. Another feature of such novels is the complete absence of everyday descriptions. Attention is paid exclusively to the romantic moments of life (new life, development, love, search for meaning).
• Labor idyll. Work for the good of society is glorified.

Most often, these two forms appear together in the novel. The heroes of idyllic novels cannot go beyond this world artificially created by the writer. The outside world seems to be devalued.

Functions of the chronotope

The most basic function of a chronotope is to organize the space in which the characters live, to make it understandable and interesting.

Space-time determines the unity of the entire narrative. Time may be described differently in one literary work, but the reader should be organically introduced to each dimension.

Chronotope expands the reader's understanding of the world. The description of space should therefore not be narrow. If time and space are chosen conditionally, say, we are talking about the future, then you need to tell as many little things as possible about this new space.

Modern chronotope. Approximate content

The heroes of today's literature live in other, modern chronotopes. These works differ significantly from the era of, say, Stendhal or Honore de Balzac. Since the chronotope largely determines, new spatio-temporal frameworks also create new genres, meanings and ideas. Fantasy, post-apocalyptic, and space adventures emerge.

Now let’s look at what defining characteristics of modern chronotopes are identified by literary scholars today.

• Abstraction and mythologization.
• Doubling.
• Use of symbolism.
• The characters' memories are of great importance.
• The emphasis is placed on the “flowing” time and the space “compressing” a person.
• Time itself can be the center of the story.

Modern culture provides the opportunity for a writer to create individual fantastic chronotopes. In general, time itself is much more abstract today than it was 100 years ago. Nowadays, social time and subjective time are distinguished, which are in no way connected with geographical time. Therefore, in literature, time-space is often blurred, depending on the internal affects of the hero.

Structure of time and space

What details does the chronotope in a work of art consist of? What does he look like? Time is formed by the cyclical changes of day and night, winter and summer, birth and death.

Space is built with the help of oppositions: north and south or the heavenly world and the underground, as the world is built in Dante's Divine Comedy. Space is also characterized as open or closed, holistic or discrete. Closed space is houses, galleries. Here you need a description of everyday items and the atmosphere in the building. The open is forests, mountains, seas. For an open landscape, it is also advisable to give several characteristics.

Discrete space is used more at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century. This is a conditional, almost unspecified space. For example, from symbolist writers you can take the image of a mirror as space. Simply put, the image prevails over reality, and in this abstract context the hero develops. For example, as in the works of Franz Kafka. The most abstract space is characteristic of romanticism and lyricism. In such a “blurred” space, the hero exists separately from everyday life. But a realistic work cannot be left without everyday details.

Interaction of chronotopes

The more tenses are used, the more interesting and intricate the plot. The artistic worlds are in dialogue with each other. There can be a lot of worlds within one work. Chronotopes can be included in each other, smoothly transition or be opposed.

For example, in the book "Cloud Atlas" there are as many as 6 worlds with their own time and space.

Historical time moves from the 19th century into the immeasurably distant future. All 6 stories, 6 volumetric chronotopes have clear cause-and-effect relationships, while all the stories are collected into one puzzle - they are united by one theme. However, all these interactions of temporary episodes remain behind the scenes, only in the context of the plot.

Examples of chronotopes

Another striking example of combining several chronotopes into one plot is the integrity of 3 worlds in the classic novel “The Master and Margarita”. The first time was the 30s in Moscow. The second chronotope is biblical times and the material world corresponding to the era; the third world in the work is Woland’s well-known ball.

The third world includes the abstract transformations of Berlioz's apartment and the adventures of Margarita as a witch.

It is worth saying that in the novels of F. Dostoevsky, time always moves very quickly and this affects the characters. But in A. Chekhov’s stories it’s the other way around: time is almost absent, it freezes along with space.

Conclusion

So, what do we know about the chronotope in a literary work? The meaning of the word is given by M. Bakhtin; he explains this concept as a unified structure of chronos - time - and space where the events of the novel take place. The chronotope is the basis of the novel, which completely determines the genre of the work and gives the writer a “guide” to a possible plot. Time and space have their own function in the novel, their own structure.

The forms of time and chronotope analyzed by M. Bakhtin are basically no longer used, as completely new ideas and genres are being developed. have completely new chronotopes that affect the nature of the narrative and the behavior of the hero.

THE CONCEPT OF CHRONOTOPES IN MODERN LITERATURE

THE NOTION OF CHRONOTOPE IN MODERN LITERATURE

Tarakanova Anastasiia Andreevna
Nizhny Novgorod State University named after N. I. Lobachevsky, Arzamas branch
the 5-year student of the historical-philological faculty

In a literary work, artistic space is inseparable from the concept of “time”.

Thus, literary scholars consider time and space as a reflection of the artist’s philosophical, ethical and other ideas, analyze the specifics of artistic time and space in different eras, in different literary movements and genres, study grammatical time in a work of art, consider time and space in their inextricable unity.

These concepts reflect the correlation of events, associative, cause-and-effect and psychological connections between them; in the work they create a complex series of events that are built during the development of the plot. A literary text differs from an ordinary (everyday) text in that the speaker creates an imaginary world in order to produce a certain effect on the reader.

Time in fiction has certain properties associated with the specifics of the literary text, its features and the author's intention. Time in the text may have clearly defined or, conversely, blurred boundaries (events, for example, may cover tens of years, a year, several days, a day, an hour, etc.), which may or may not be designated in the work as related to historical time or the time that the author sets conventionally.

The first property of artistic time is systemic nature. This property is manifested in the organization of the fictional reality of the work, its inner world with the embodiment of the author’s concept, his perception of the surrounding reality, with the reflection of his picture of the world through the characters.

In a work of art, time can be multidimensional. This property of artistic time is associated with the very nature or essence of a literary work, which has, firstly, an author and presupposes the presence of a reader, and secondly, boundaries: the beginning of the story and its end. Thus, two time axes arise in the text - the “axis of storytelling” and the “axis of described events.” Moreover, the “axis of storytelling” is one-dimensional, while the “axis of events described” is multidimensional. The relationship of these “axes” gives rise to the multidimensionality of artistic time and makes possible temporal shifts and multiple temporal points of view in the structure of the text. Often in works of art the sequence of events is disrupted, and a large role is played by those same temporal displacements, violations of the temporal sequence of the narrative, which characterizes the property of multidimensionality, which affects the author’s division of the text into semantic segments, episodes, chapters.

The interrelation of temporal and spatial relations M.M. Bakhtin outlined chronotope(which literally means “time-space”). M.M. Bakhtin used this term in literary criticism to express the inseparability of space and time from each other. Time here represents the fourth dimension of space. In literature, the chronotope has a significant genre meaning. The genre and genre varieties of a particular work are determined precisely by the chronotope, and in literature the leading principle in the chronotope is time. Bakhtin believes that in a literary chronotope, time certainly dominates space, making it more meaningful and measurable.

Literary chronotopes have, first of all, plot significance; they are the organized centers of the main events described by the author. The chronotope, as the unity of time and place of action of a work, not only determines the circumstances and forms of communication, but also in a certain way supports the attitude towards these circumstances accepted in a given culture.

The relationship between space and time is obvious. Thus, in the English language there are prepositions that simultaneously express spatial and temporal relations, such as in, at, before, after, by, next, etc.

By my side – space;

By six o'clock - time.

In linguistics there is an objective image of space and time. If space is accessible to the direct perception of a person and is described in language using words, expressions, phrasal verbs, etc., used in their literal or figurative meaning, then time is not accessible to the direct perception of the senses, so its models can be changeable.

Consequently, each writer interprets time and space in his own way, endowing them with his own characteristics that reflect the author’s worldview. As a result, the artistic space created by the writer is unique and unlike any other artistic space and time. The connection of a literary text with the categories of space and time is already determined by the linguistic category of predicativity itself, which is the main characteristic of a sentence as a communicative language unit. Since the phenomena of the surrounding world themselves exist in time and space, the linguistic form of their expression cannot but reflect this property of them. Using language, it is impossible to form a statement without expressing the temporal correlation of its content with the moment of speech or a certain position in space.

Space and time in a literary work. Types of artistic time and space. The concept of chronotope. Functions and types of chronotopes.

Hood literature (in this respect, theater and cinema are similar to it) reproduces life processes occurring in time, that is, human life associated with a chain of experiences, thoughts, intentions, actions, events.

Aristotle was the first to connect “space and time” with the meaning of a work of art. Then the ideas about these categories were carried out by: Likhachev, Bakhtin. Thanks to their works, “space and time” became established as the basis of literary categories. In any case the work inevitably reflects real time and space. As a result, a whole system of spatio-temporal relations develops in the work.

Artistic time And artistic space - this is the nature of the artistic image, which provides a holistic perception artistic reality and organizes the compositional work.

Artistic time And space symbolic. Basic spatial symbols: house (image of a closed space), space (image of an open space), threshold, window, door (border). In modern literature: train station, airport (places of decisive meetings).

Artistic space can be: point, volumetric.

Artistic space Dostoevsky's novels are a stage. Time in his novels moves very quickly, but in Chekhov time has stopped.

The famous physiologist Ukhtomsky combined two Greek words: chronos- time,topos- place into the concept chronotope– space-time complex.

MM. Bakhtin in his work “Forms of Time and Chronotope” in the novel explores chronotope in novels of different eras since antiquity. He showed that chronotopes different authors and different eras differ from each other.

Bakhtin: term "chronotope" For him these are two indivisible things, synthesis, unity.

Chronotope – a significant interrelation of temporal and spatial relations, artistically mastered in literature or in a literary work.

According to Bakhtin, the chronotope is primarily an attribute of the novel. It has plot significance. Space structure built on opposition: top-bottom, sky-earth, earth-underworld, north-south, left-right, closed-open.

Time structure : day-night, spring-autumn, light-dark, etc.

Functions of the chronotope:

Determines the artistic unity of a literary work in its relation to reality;

Organizes the space of the work, leads readers into it;

Can relate different space and time;

Can build a chain of associations in the reader’s mind and, on this basis, connect works with ideas about the world and expand these ideas.

In addition, both time and space distinguish between the concrete and the abstract. If time is abstract, then space is abstract, and vice versa.

Types of private chronotopes according to Bakhtin:

The chronotope of the road is based on the motive of a chance meeting. The appearance of this motif in the text can cause a plot. Open space.

The chronotope of a private salon is a non-random meeting. Closed space.

chronotope of the castle (it is not found in Russian literature). The dominance of the historical, tribal past. Limited space.

The chronotope of a provincial town is eventless time, a closed, self-sufficient space, living its own life. Time is cyclical, but not sacred.

chronotype of threshold (crisis consciousness, turning point). There is no biography as such, only moments.

Large chronotope:

Folklore (idyllic). Based on the law of inversion.

Trends in modern chronotope:

mythologization and symbolization

doubling

recalling a character's memory

strengthening the meaning of montage

time itself becomes the hero of the story

time and space are integral coordinates of the world.

CHRONOTOP

CHRONOTOP

(literally "time-space")

unity of spatial and temporal parameters aimed at expressing def. (cultural, artistic) sense. The term X. was first used in psychology by Ukhtomsky. It became widespread in literature and then in aesthetics thanks to the works of Bakhtin.

This means the birth of this concept and its rooting in the law. and aesthetic consciousness was inspired by the natural scientific discoveries of the beginning. 20th century and fundamental changes in ideas about the picture of the world as a whole. In accordance with them, space and time are conceived as “interconnected coordinates of a single four-dimensional continuum, meaningfully dependent on the reality they describe. In essence, this interpretation continues the tradition of relationalism that began in antiquity (as opposed to substantial) understanding of space and time (Aristotle, St. Augustine, Leibniz, etc.). Hegel also interpreted these categories as interconnected and mutually defining. The emphasis placed by the discoveries of Einstein, Minkowski and others on the contain, determinacy of space and time, as well as their ambivalent relationship, is metaphorically reproduced in X. by Bakhtin. On the other hand, this term correlates with V.I. Vernadsky’s description of the noosphere, characterized by a single space-time associated with the spiritual dimension of life. It is fundamentally different from psychology. space and time, which have their own characteristics in perception. Here, as in Bakhtin’s X., we mean simultaneously spiritual and material reality, with man at the center.

Central to the understanding of X., according to Bakhtin, is axiological. the orientation of space-time unity, the function of which in art. the work consists in expressing a personal position, meaning: “Entry into the sphere of meanings occurs only through gate X.”. In other words, the meanings contained in a work can be objectified only through their spatiotemporal expression. Moreover, with their own X. (and the meanings they reveal) possessed by both the author, the work itself, and the reader who perceives it (listener, viewer). Thus, understanding a work, its sociocultural objectification is, according to Bakhtin, one of the manifestations of the dialogical nature of being.

X. is individual for each meaning, therefore hu-doge. work from this view. has a multi-layer ("polyphonic") structure.

Each of its levels represents a reciprocal connection of spaces. and temporary parameters, based on the unity of discrete and continuous principles, which makes it possible to translate spaces and parameters into temporary forms and vice versa. The more such layers are revealed in a work (X.), especially since it is polysemantic, “much-meaningful.”

Each type of art is characterized by its own type of X., determined by its “matter”. In accordance with this, the arts are divided into: spatial, in chronotopes of which temporal qualities are expressed in space. forms; temporary, where space parameters are “shifted” to temporary coordinates; and spatiotemporal, in which X. of both types are present.

B means. degree, the birth of this concept and its rooting in lawsuits. and aesthetic consciousness was inspired by the natural scientific discoveries of the beginning. 20th century and fundamental changes in ideas about the picture of the world as a whole. In accordance with them, space and time are conceived as interconnected coordinates of a single four-dimensional continuum, meaningfully dependent on the reality they describe. In essence, this interpretation continues the tradition of a relational (as opposed to substantial) understanding of space and time, begun in antiquity (Aristotle, St. Augustine, Leibniz, etc.). Hegel also interpreted these categories as interconnected and mutually defining. The emphasis placed on the discoveries of Einstein, Minkowski and others is contained. the determinism of space and time, as well as their ambivalent relationship, are metaphorically reproduced in X. by Bakhtin. On the other hand, this term correlates with V.I. Vernadsky’s description of the noosphere (see Vernadsky, Noosphere), characterized by a single space-time associated with the spiritual dimension of life. It is fundamentally different from psychology. space and time, which have their own characteristics in perception. Here, as in Bakhtin’s X., we mean both spiritual and material reality, with man at the center.

Central to the understanding of X., according to Bakhtin, is axiological. the orientation of space-time unity, the function of which in art. the work consists in expressing a personal position, meaning: “Entry into the sphere of meanings occurs only through gate X.”. In other words, the meanings contained in a work can be objectified only through their spatio-temporal expression. Moreover, both the author, the work itself, and the reader (listener, viewer) who perceive it have their own X (and the meanings they reveal). Thus, understanding a work, its sociocultural objectification is, according to Bakhtin, one of the manifestations of the dialogical nature of being.

X. is individual for each meaning, therefore the artist. work from this view. has a multilayer (“polyphonic”) structure.

Each of its levels represents a reciprocal connection of spaces. and time parameters, based on the unity of discrete and continuous principles, which makes it possible to translate spaces. parameters into temporary forms and vice versa. The more such layers (X.) are found in a work, the more polysemantic it is, “much-meaningful.”

Each type of art is characterized by its own type of X., determined by its “matter”. In accordance with this, the arts are divided into: spatial, in chronotopes of which temporal qualities are expressed in space. forms; temporary, where spaces. parameters are “shifted” to time coordinates; and spatiotemporal, in which X. of both types are present.

About chronotopic. the structure of the artist works can be spoken to the viewer. dept. plot motif (for example, X. threshold, road, life turning point, etc. in Dostoevsky’s poetics); in the aspect of its genre definition (on this basis, Bakhtin distinguishes the genres of adventure novel, adventure novel, biographer, knightly, etc.); in relation to the individual style of the author (carnival and mystery time in Dostoevsky and biogr. time in L. Tolstoy); in connection with the organization of the form of a work, since such, for example, meaning-bearing categories as rhythm and symmetry are nothing more than a reciprocal connection of space and time, based on the unity of discrete and continuous principles.

X., expressing the general features of the artist. spatio-temporal organization in a given cultural system, testify to the spirit and direction of the value orientations dominant in it. In this case, space and time are thought of as abstractions, through which it is possible to construct a picture of a unified cosmos, a single and ordered Universe. For example, the spatio-temporal thinking of primitive people is objective-sensual and timeless, since the consciousness of time is spatialized and at the same time sacralized and emotionally charged. The cultural X. of the Ancient East and antiquity is built by myth, in which time is cyclical, and space (Cosmos) is animated. Middle-century Christ consciousness has formed its own X., consisting of linear irreversible time and hierarchically structured, thoroughly symbolic space, the ideal expression of which is the microcosm of the temple. The Renaissance created X., which is in many ways relevant for modern times.

The opposition of man to the world as a subject-object made it possible to realize and measure its spaces. depth. At the same time, qualityless dismembered time appears. The emergence of unified temporal thinking and space alienated from humans, characteristic of the New Age, made these categories abstractions, which is recorded in Newtonian physics and Cartesian philosophy.

Modern culture with all the complexity and diversity of its social, national, mental and other relations is characterized by many different X.; Among them, the most revealing is, perhaps, the one that expresses the image of compressed space and flowing (“lost”) time, in which (in contrast to the consciousness of the ancients) there is practically no present.

Lit.: Rhythm, space and time in literature and art. L., 1974; Akhundov M.D. Concepts of space and time: origins, evolution, prospects. M., 1982; Gurevich A.Ya. Categories middle-century. culture. M., 1984; Bakhtin M.M. Forms of time and chronotope in the novel. Essays on history. poetics // Bakhtin M.M. Literary criticism articles. M., 1986; Space and time in art. L., 1988; Trubnikov N.N. Time is human. being. M., 1987; Florensky P.A. Time and space // Sociol. research. 1988. N 1; Time in Science and Philosophy. Prague, 1971.

N.D. Irza.

Cultural studies of the twentieth century. Encyclopedia. M.1996

Large explanatory dictionary of cultural studies.. Kononenko B.I. . 2003.

See what "CHRONOTOP" is in other dictionaries:

CHRONOTOP (“time-space”). In a narrow sense, an aesthetic category reflecting the ambivalent connection of temporal and spatial relations, artistically mastered and expressed using appropriate visual means in literature... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

CHRONOTOP- (from Greek chronos time + topos place; literally timespace). Space and time are the harshest determinants of human existence, even harsher than society. Overcoming space and time and mastering them is an existential... ... Great psychological encyclopedia

- (from other Greek χρόνος, “time” and τόπος, “place”) “a regular connection of space-time coordinates.” The term introduced by A.A. Ukhtomsky in the context of his physiological research, and then (at the initiative of M. M. Bakhtin) moved to ... ... Wikipedia

Chronotope(“time” and τόπος, “place”) - “a regular connection of space-time coordinates.” The term introduced by A.A. Ukhtomsky in the context of his physiological research, and then (at the initiative of M. M. Bakhtin) moved into the humanitarian sphere. “Ukhtomsky proceeded from the fact that heterochrony is a condition for possible harmony: linkage in time, speed, rhythms of action, and therefore in the timing of the implementation of individual elements, forms a functionally defined “center” from spatially separated groups.” Ukhtomsky refers to Einstein, mentioning the “fusion of space and time” in Minkowski space. However, he introduces this concept into the context of human perception: “from the point of view of the chronotope, there are no longer abstract points, but living and indelible events from existence.”

MM. Bakhtin also understood chronotope as “an essential interconnection of temporal and spatial relations.”

“The chronotope in literature has significant genre significance. We can directly say that the genre and genre varieties are determined precisely by the chronotope, and in literature the leading principle in the chronotope is time. Chronotope as a formal and meaningful category determines (to a large extent) the image of a person in literature; this image is always essentially chronotopic. ... The development of a real historical chronotope in literature was complicated and discontinuous: they mastered certain specific aspects of the chronotope that were available in given historical conditions, and only certain forms of artistic reflection of the real chronotope were developed. These genre forms, productive at the beginning, were consolidated by tradition and in subsequent development continued to stubbornly exist even when they had completely lost their realistically productive and adequate meaning. Hence the existence in literature of phenomena that are deeply different in time, which extremely complicates the historical and literary process.”

Bakhtin M. M. Forms of time and chronotope in the novel

Thanks to Bakhtin's works, the term has become widespread in Russian and foreign literary criticism. Among historians, it was actively used by medievalist Aron Gurevich.

In social psychology, a chronotope is understood as a certain characteristic communicative situation that is repeated in a certain time and place. “We know the chronotope of a school lesson, where the forms of communication are set by the traditions of teaching, the chronotope of a hospital ward, where the dominant attitudes (an acute desire to be cured, hopes, doubts, homesickness) leave a specific imprint on the subject of communication, etc.”

Bakhtin defines the concept of chronotope as a significant interconnection of temporal and spatial relations, artistically mastered in literature. “In the literary and artistic chronotope there is a merging of spatial and temporal signs into a meaningful and concrete whole. Time here thickens, becomes denser, becomes artistically visible; space is intensified, drawn into the movement of time, the plot of history. Signs

times are revealed in space, and space is comprehended and measured by time.” Chronotope is a formal-content category of literature. At the same time, Bakhtin also mentions

a broader concept of “artistic chronotope”, which is

the intersection of time and space in a work of art and

expressing the continuity of time and space, the interpretation of time as

fourth dimension of space.

Bakhtin notes that the term “chronotope”, introduced and justified in theory

Einstein's relativity and widely used in mathematics

natural science, is transferred to literary criticism “almost like a metaphor (almost, but

not really)"

Bakhtin transfers the term “chronotope” from mathematical natural science to

literary criticism and even connects its “timespace” with general theory

Einstein's relativity. This remark seems to need

clarification. The term "chronotope" was actually used in the 20s. of the past

century in physics and could be used by analogy also in literary criticism.

But the very idea of ​​the continuity of space and time, which is intended to denote

this term developed in aesthetics itself, much earlier than the theory

Einstein, who linked together physical time and physical space and

which made time the fourth dimension of space. Bakhtin himself mentions, in

in particular, “Laocoon” by G.E. Lessing, in which the principle was first revealed

chronotopic character of the artistic and literary image. Description static

spatial must be involved in the time series of depicted events

and the story-image itself. In Lessing's famous example, the beauty of Helen

is not described statically by Homer, but is shown through its effect on

Trojan elders, is revealed in their movements and actions. Thus,

the concept of chronotope gradually took shape in literary criticism itself, and not

was mechanically transferred into it from a completely different nature

scientific discipline.

Is it difficult to claim that the concept of chrontope applies to all types of art? IN

In the spirit of Bakhtin, all arts can be divided depending on their relationship to

time and space into temporal (music), spatial (painting,

sculpture) and space-time (literature, theater), depicting

spatial-sensory phenomena in their movement and formation. When

temporal and spatial arts, the concept of a chronotope that links together

time and space, if applicable, are to a very limited extent. Music

does not unfold in space, painting and sculpture are almost

momentary, because they reflect movement and change very restrainedly.

The concept of chronotope is largely metaphorical. If used in relation to

to music, painting, sculpture and similar forms of art, it

turns into a very vague metaphor.

Since the concept of chronotope is effectively applicable only in the case

space-time arts, it is not universal. With all

its significance, it turns out to be useful only in the case of arts that have

a plot unfolding both in time and space.

In contrast to the chronotope, the concept of artistic space, expressing

the relationship between the elements of a work and creating a special aesthetic

unity, universal. If artistic space is understood in

in a broad sense and is not limited to displaying the placement of objects in real

space, we can talk about artistic space not only painting

and sculpture, but also about the artistic space of literature, theater, music

The peculiarity of M. M. Bakhtin’s description of the categories of space and time,

the study of which in different models of the world later became one of the main

directions of research of secondary modeling semiotic systems,

is the introduction of the concept of “chronotope”. In his report, read in 1938

year, the properties of the novel as a genre M. M. Bakhtin largely derived from

“revolution in the hierarchy of times”, changes in the “temporal model of the world”,

orientation towards the unfinished present. Consideration here - according to

ideas discussed above - is both semiotic and

axiological, since “value-time categories” are studied,

determining the significance of one time in relation to another: value

the past in the epic is contrasted with the value of the present for the novel. IN

in terms of structural linguistics one could talk about change

correlations of times according to markedness (signature) - unmarkedness.

Recreating the medieval picture of space, Bakhtin came to the conclusion that

“This picture is characterized by a certain value-based emphasis on space:

spatial steps going from bottom to top strictly corresponded

value levels" . With this

the role of the vertical is associated (ibid.): “That concrete and visible model of the world,

which underlay medieval figurative thinking was essentially

vertical, which is not visible

only in the system of images and metaphors, but, for example, also in the image of the path in

medieval travel accounts. P. A. Florensky came to similar conclusions,

who noted that “Christian art advanced the vertical and gave it

significant dominance over other coordinates<.„>Middle Ages

enhances this stylistic feature of Christian art and gives

vertical is completely predominant, and this process is observed in the western

medieval fresco"<...>"the most important basis of stylistic

originality and artistic spirit of the century determines the choice of the dominant

coordinates"

This idea is confirmed by M. M. Bakhtin’s analysis of the chronotope

novel of the transition period to the Renaissance from the hierarchical vertical

medieval painting to the horizontal, where movement in

time from past to future.

The concept of "chronotope" is a rationalized terminological equivalent to

the concept of that “value structure”, the immanent presence of which is

characteristics of a work of art. Now it is possible with sufficient

assert with some confidence that pure “vertical” and pure “horizontal”,

unacceptable because of their monotony, Bakhtin opposed the “chronotope”,

combining both coordinates. Chrontop creates a special “volumetric” unity

Bakhtin's world, the unity of its value and time dimensions. And that's the point

not in the banal post-Einsteinian image of time as the fourth dimension

space; Bakhtin's chronotope in its value unity is built on

the crossing of two fundamentally different directions of moral efforts

subject: directions to the “other” (horizontal, time-space, given

world) and direction to the “I” (vertical, “big time”, sphere of the “given”).

This gives the work not just physical and not only semantic, but

artistic volume.

CHRONOTOP

(literally "time-space")

unity of spatial and temporal parameters aimed at expression def. (cultural, artist) sense. The term X. was first used in psychology by Ukhtomsky. It became widespread in literature and then in aesthetics thanks to the works of Bakhtin.

This means the birth of this concept and its rooting in the law. and aesthetic consciousness was inspired by natural scientific discoveries beginning 20 V. and fundamental changes in ideas about the picture of the world as a whole. In accordance with them, space and time are conceived as “interconnected coordinates of a single four-dimensional continuum, meaningfully dependent on the reality they describe. In essence, this interpretation continues the tradition of relationalism that began in antiquity (as opposed to substantial) understanding of space and time (Aristotle, St. Augustine, Leibniz and etc.) . Hegel also interpreted these categories as interconnected and mutually defining. The emphasis placed on the discoveries of Einstein, Minkowski and etc. not contain, the determinism of space and time, as well as their ambivalent relationship, are metaphorically reproduced in X. by Bakhtin. WITH etc. On the other hand, this term correlates with V.I. Vernadsky’s description of the noosphere, characterized by a single space-time associated with the spiritual dimension of life. It is fundamentally different from psychology. space and time, which have their own characteristics in perception. Here, as in Bakhtin’s X., we mean simultaneously spiritual and material reality, with man at the center.

Central to the understanding of X., according to Bakhtin, is axiological. the orientation of space-time unity, the function of which is artist the work consists in expressing a personal position, meaning: “Entry into the sphere of meanings occurs only through gate X.”. In other words, the meanings contained in a work can be objectified only through their spatiotemporal expression. Moreover, with their own X. (and the meanings they reveal) possessed by both the author, the work itself, and the reader who perceives it (listener, viewer). Thus, understanding a work, its sociocultural objectification is, according to Bakhtin, one of the manifestations of the dialogical nature of being.

X. is individual for each meaning, therefore hu-doge. work from this t.zr. has a multi-layer ("polyphonic") structure.

Each of its levels represents a reciprocal connection of spaces. and temporary parameters, based on the unity of discrete and continuous principles, which makes it possible to translate spaces and parameters into temporary forms and vice versa. The more such layers are revealed in a work (X.), especially since it is polysemantic, “much-meaningful.”

Each type of art is characterized by its own type of X., determined by its “matter”. In accordance with this, the arts are divided into: spatial, in chronotopes of which temporal qualities are expressed in space. forms; temporary, where space parameters are “shifted” to temporary coordinates; and spatiotemporal, in which X. of both types are present.

About chronotopic. structure artist works can be spoken with t.zr.department plot motive (e.g. X. threshold, road, life turning point and etc. in the poetics of Dostoevsky); in terms of its genre definition (on this basis, Bakhtin distinguishes the genres of adventure novel, adventure novel, biographer, knightly, etc.); in relation to the individual style of the author (carnival and mystery time in Dostoevsky and biogr. time in L. Tolstoy); in connection with the organization of the form of the work, since such eg, meaning-bearing categories like rhythm and symmetry are nothing more than a reciprocal connection between space and time, based on the unity of discrete and continuous principles.

X., expressing common features artist spatio-temporal organization in a given cultural system, testify to the spirit and direction of the value orientations dominant in it. In this case, space and time are thought of as abstractions, through which it is possible to construct a picture of a unified cosmos, a single and ordered Universe. For example, the spatio-temporal thinking of primitive people is objective-sensual and timeless, since the consciousness of time is spatialized and at the same time sacralized and emotionally charged. Cultural X. of the Ancient East and antiquity is built by myth, in which time is cyclical, and space (Space) animated. Middle-century Christ consciousness has formed its own X, consisting of linear irreversible time and hierarchically structured, thoroughly symbolic space, the ideal expression of which is the microcosm of the temple. The Renaissance created X., which is in many ways relevant for modern times.

The opposition of man to the world as a subject-object made it possible to realize and measure its spaces and depth. At the same time, qualityless dismembered time appears. The emergence of unified temporal thinking and space alienated from humans, characteristic of the New Age, made these categories abstractions, which is recorded in Newtonian physics and Cartesian philosophy.

Modern culture with all the complexity and diversity of its social, national, mental and etc. relationships are characterized by many different X.; Among them, the most revealing is, perhaps, the one that expresses the image of compressed space and flowing ("lost") time, in which (as opposed to the consciousness of the ancients) there is practically no present.