The narrative space-time in the dynastic chronicles of Stilfrid, Bruncvik and Melusine Cover Image

Narativní časoprostor v rodových kronikách o Štilfridovi a Bruncvíkovi a o Meluzíně
The narrative space-time in the dynastic chronicles of Stilfrid, Bruncvik and Melusine

Author(s): Jiří Koten
Subject(s): Theory of Literature
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: diachronic narratology; fictional time; fictional space; personification

Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on the way in which time and space are constructed in Czech late-medieval dynastic chronicles (Chronicle of Stilfrid and Chronicle of Bruncvik and the Chronicle of Melusine). The interpretation is based on Bakhtin's chronotope theory, as well as on narratology, which has in recent years increasingly reflected upon the development of functions and forms in narratives from different historical periods. In the time of their appearance the analyzed texts introduced innovations in the concept on narrative time and space. They can be clearly observed in the represented perception of time, which began to demonstrate a higher level of mimesis. Narrators incorporated the chronicler's perception of time and provided thorough information about the exact timing of events. Space mimetism (forming of topography) is mainly achieved through personification (getting to know the foreign world, for example, is represented as a sexual relationship of knight Bruncvík with the virgins of Europe and Africa; one of the sisters of the maiden Melusine bears the name of Palestine etc.).

  • Issue Year: 22/2019
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 7-16
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Czech
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