Between Past and Future: Temporal Thresholds in Narrative Texts

Summary

This article is concerned with time and temporality in human experience as well as in narrative representation. The focus is directed at the representation of thresholds, threshold experiences, borders and boundaries in narrative texts, but where these concepts are more often than not analysed from a spatial perspective, the temporality of these forms of liminality is foregrounded here. Using Ricoeur's views on time, temporality, historicality and the representation of time as points of departure and referring to Jesse Matz's discussion of the postmodern time crisis, the so-called “era of the nanosecond”, the representation of time-related themes and the aesthetic rendering of threshold experiences in Anne Michaels's novel Fugitive Pieces are explored.

Opsomming

Hierdie artikel is gerig op tyd en temporaliteit in menslike ervaring sowel as in die representasie van narratiewe. Daar word gefokus op die representasie van drumpels, grenservarings, grense en limiete in verhalende tekste, maar terwyl hierdie konsepte meestal vanuit 'n ruimtelike perspektief ontleed word, word die temporele aspekte van hierdie vorme van liminaliteit in hierdie betoog vooropgestel. Deur gebruik te maak van Paul Ricoeur se sienings oor tyd, temporaliteit, historisiteit en die representasie van tyd as vertrekpunt en deur te verwys na Jesse Matz se uiteensetting van die postmoderne tydskrisis, die sogenaamde “era van die nanosekonde” word die representasie van die tydsproblematiek en die estetiese representasie van drumpel-ervarings in Anne Michaels se roman Fugitive Pieces ontleed en bespreek.