Journal Article

The Relative Narrative

Moawad, Asmaa Magdy

2024

Overview

Two major stages in the history of applied physics are meant to define, or rather, re-define the time conception in the zeitgeist of the era. the first stage has to do with the effect of Relativity as a definition of the fourth dimension/ the fourth density/ time, as well as its direct impact on the cultural and aesthetic consciousness of the era. Relativity, in other words, has changed time conception from linear, sequential, simply ordered, and tangibly perceived structure into a paradoxical simultaneously complex structure perceived synchronously, without any particular singular tense either present, past, or future. This reformation of time, which has traditionally been perceived as the major stake of all human activity, has influenced almost every single field of human knowledge, including conceptions of narrative time. It has changed nathe rrativity's conception of tense as sequence now offered as more relative or symbolic than ever appeared in any of the traditional narratives. This transformation from mere linearity to relative simultaneity of events can be best explained in terms of the change of temporal construction from the 18th to the 19th-century narratives. This paper, therefore, is meant to investigate the kind of time liquefication, or rather, time partial dissemination offered in late 19th and early 20th centuries' modernist narratives, as both counter to 18th-century narrative's absolute linearity, and an implication of Relativity's view of the world. This article will, therefore, discuss these changes as falling into four reforming practices: firstly, \"Narration over narrativity\", secondly, \"Narrator over characters\", thirdly, \"Crisis over development\", and \"Time as the I time\". Charts and figures will be introduced to deliver an approximate explanation of what this paper terms a relative narrative.

• Publisher: جامعة السويس - كلية الآداب
• Subject: أدب الرواية / الأدب الإنجليزي / السرد النسبي / الوعي الجمالي