Chapter 1: The Models of Time
Chapter 1: The Models of Time

Summary/Abstract: The irreversibility of Time [...] is a very parochial affair: had our organs and orgitrons not been asymmetrical, our view of Time might have been amphitheatric and altogether grand, like ragged night and jagged mountains around a small, twinkling, satisfied hamlet. (V. Nabokov. Ada) Science and philosophy of the turn of the 20th century postulated existence of different, often incompatible time models. Psychologists (Ribot, Janet, Minkowski, etc.) discovered a diversity of peculiar pathological types of time organization besides the social time construction (Durkheim) and the temporality of perception and consciousness (Bergson). The study of time embraced physics, philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, art theory and other fields. The elements of the philosophy of time are incorporated into Nabokov’s fiction. In Ada (1969), “terrology” (the science of Terra) is defined as “a branch of psychiatry” (Ada, 20) and thus might have served as a cover term for the philosophy of time. Aqua’s case is similar to the psychiatric cases depicted by Janet and Minkowski to examine the “aberrant” or alternative types of time in order to explain and describe the “normal” time construction.

• Details
• Contents