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Time and Narrative #2
Time and Narrative, Volume 2
In volume 1 of this three-volume work, Paul Ricoeur examined the relations between time and narrative in historical writing. Now, in volume 2, he examines these relations in fiction and theories of literature.
Ricoeur treats the question of just how far the Aristotelian concept of "plot" in narrative fiction can be expanded and whether there is a point at which narrative fiction as a literary form not only blurs at the edges but ceases to exist at all. Though some semiotic theorists have proposed all fiction can be reduced to an atemporal structure, Ricoeur argues that fiction depends on the reader's understanding of narrative traditions, which do evolve but necessarily include a temporal dimension. He looks at how time is actually expressed in narrative fiction, particularly through use of tenses, point of view, and voice. He applies this approach to three books that are, in a sense, tales about Virgina Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway; Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain; and Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past .
"Ricoeur writes the best kind of philosophy—critical, economical, and clear."—Eugen Weber, New York Times Book Review
"A major work of literary theory and criticism under the aegis of philosophical hermenutics. I believe that . . . it will come to have an impact greater than that of Gadamer's Truth and Method—a work it both supplements and transcends in its contribution to our understanding of the meaning of texts and their relationship to the world."—Robert Detweiler, Religion and Literature
"One cannot fail to be impressed by Ricoeur's encyclopedic knowledge of the subject under consideration. . . . To students of rhetoric, the importance of Time and Narrative . . . is all too evident to require extensive elaboration."—Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar, Quarterly Journal of Speech
Ricoeur treats the question of just how far the Aristotelian concept of "plot" in narrative fiction can be expanded and whether there is a point at which narrative fiction as a literary form not only blurs at the edges but ceases to exist at all. Though some semiotic theorists have proposed all fiction can be reduced to an atemporal structure, Ricoeur argues that fiction depends on the reader's understanding of narrative traditions, which do evolve but necessarily include a temporal dimension. He looks at how time is actually expressed in narrative fiction, particularly through use of tenses, point of view, and voice. He applies this approach to three books that are, in a sense, tales about Virgina Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway; Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain; and Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past .
"Ricoeur writes the best kind of philosophy—critical, economical, and clear."—Eugen Weber, New York Times Book Review
"A major work of literary theory and criticism under the aegis of philosophical hermenutics. I believe that . . . it will come to have an impact greater than that of Gadamer's Truth and Method—a work it both supplements and transcends in its contribution to our understanding of the meaning of texts and their relationship to the world."—Robert Detweiler, Religion and Literature
"One cannot fail to be impressed by Ricoeur's encyclopedic knowledge of the subject under consideration. . . . To students of rhetoric, the importance of Time and Narrative . . . is all too evident to require extensive elaboration."—Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar, Quarterly Journal of Speech
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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About the author
Paul Ricœur
309 books454 followersPaul Ricoeur (1913–2005) is widely recognized as one of the most distinguished philosophers of the twentieth century. In the course of his long career he wrote on a broad range of issues. His books include a multi-volume project on the philosophy of the will: Freedom and Nature: The Voluntary and the Involuntary (1950, Eng. tr. 1966), Fallible Man (1960, Eng. tr. 1967), and The Symbolism of Evil (1960, Eng. tr. 1970); a major study of Freud: Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation (1965, Eng. tr. 1970); The Rule of Metaphor (1975, Eng. tr. 1977); Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning (1976); the three-volume Time and Narrative (1983-85, Eng. tr. 1984–88); Lectures on Ideology and Utopia (1986); the published version of his Gifford lectures: Oneself as Another (1990, Eng. tr. 1992); Memory, History, Forgetting (2000, Eng. tr. 2004); and The Course of Recognition (2004, Eng. tr. 2005). In addition to his books, Ricoeur published more than 500 essays, many of which appear in collections in English: History and Truth (1955, Eng. tr. 1965); Husserl: An Analysis of His Phenomenology (1967); The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics (1969, Eng. tr. 1974); Political and Social Essays (1974); Essays on Biblical Interpretation (1980); Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences (1981); From Text to Action (1986, Eng. tr. 1991); Figuring the Sacred: Religion, Narrative, and Imagination (1995); The Just (1995, Eng. tr. 2000); On Translation (2004, Eng. tr. 2004); and Reflections on the Just (2001, Eng. tr. 2007).
The major theme that unites his writings is that of a philosophical anthropology. This anthropology, which Ricoeur came to call an anthropology of the “capable human being,” aims to give an account of the fundamental capabilities and vulnerabilities that human beings display in the activities that make up their lives. Though the accent is always on the possibility of understanding the self as an agent responsible for its actions, Ricoeur consistently rejects any claim that the self is immediately transparent to itself or fully master of itself. Self-knowledge only comes through our relation to the world and our life with and among others in that world.
In the course of developing his anthropology, Ricoeur made a major methodological shift. His writings prior to 1960 were in the tradition of existential phenomenology. But during the 1960s Ricoeur concluded that properly to study human reality he had to combine phenomenological description with hermeneutic interpretation. For this hermeneutic phenomenology, whatever is intelligible is accessible to us in and through language and all deployments of language call for interpretation. Accordingly, “there is no self-understanding that is not mediated by signs, symbols, and texts; in the final analysis self-understanding coincides with the interpretation given to these mediating terms” (Oneself as Another, 15, translation corrected). This hermeneutic or linguistic turn did not require him to disavow the basic results of his earlier investigations. It did, however, lead him not only to revisit them but also to see more clearly their implications.
The major theme that unites his writings is that of a philosophical anthropology. This anthropology, which Ricoeur came to call an anthropology of the “capable human being,” aims to give an account of the fundamental capabilities and vulnerabilities that human beings display in the activities that make up their lives. Though the accent is always on the possibility of understanding the self as an agent responsible for its actions, Ricoeur consistently rejects any claim that the self is immediately transparent to itself or fully master of itself. Self-knowledge only comes through our relation to the world and our life with and among others in that world.
In the course of developing his anthropology, Ricoeur made a major methodological shift. His writings prior to 1960 were in the tradition of existential phenomenology. But during the 1960s Ricoeur concluded that properly to study human reality he had to combine phenomenological description with hermeneutic interpretation. For this hermeneutic phenomenology, whatever is intelligible is accessible to us in and through language and all deployments of language call for interpretation. Accordingly, “there is no self-understanding that is not mediated by signs, symbols, and texts; in the final analysis self-understanding coincides with the interpretation given to these mediating terms” (Oneself as Another, 15, translation corrected). This hermeneutic or linguistic turn did not require him to disavow the basic results of his earlier investigations. It did, however, lead him not only to revisit them but also to see more clearly their implications.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 7, 2018
حالا که این جلد و جلد اول اثر را دوباره خواندم (اینبار جدی تر برای نوشتن پایان نامه) دقت و زیبایی اثر خیلی بیشتر به چشمم آمد
هر سه جلد زمان و روایت (یا بطور دقیقتر سه بخش از چهار بخش آن) مجموعه ای از خوانشهای بینظیر، دقیق و نوآورانه است که از دل متفکرین مختلف مسیر اندیشه خود را باز میکند. اگر تجربه مدرنیته ی مارشال برمن را به عنوان یک معیار خوانش عالی برای طرح ایده های شخصی بدانیم، زمان و روایت به مراتب اثری وسیعتر، دقیقتر و پیچیده تر است. با نظامی وسیع و صورتبندی هگلی در تالیف دیالکتیکی روشهایی که از هر یک ویژگیهایی بیرون آورده تا در نقدی دست بالاتر به کارگرفته شوند
جلد دوم زمان و روایت میخواهد نشان دهد داستان، روایتمندی زندگی واقعی را نشان میدهد و برخلاف مدعای فرانک کرمود (که با ارجاع به نیچه، داستان را تسلای دروغین دربرابر بیسامانی زندگی معرفی میکند) زندگی با داستان غنی تر میشود و اصلا برای فهم زندگی به روایت کردن آن نیاز است
پس داستان چیزی از حقیقت دارد، نحوه ارجاع و حتی نحوه صدقی دارد که دیگر بازنمایاننده نیست، بلکه به دنیایی ارجاع میدهد که داستان برابر خواننده فرا می افکند. از دل این نکته متوجه میشویم که خواننده و خوانش اوست که این داستان را از طریق بازسازی پیرنگ داستان فرامی افکند
ریکور در جلد دوم با خوانشی دیالکتیکی از نورتروپ فرای و فرانک کرمود سراغ دگردیسیهای روایت داستانی و به ویژه رمان معاصر میرود تا نشان دهد آنها نیز حتی برخلاف مدعای خودشان از روایتمندی خالی نیستند
سپس به خوانش نشانه شناسانی مثل پروپ، گریماس و بارت پرداخته و نشان میدهد روایت چه محدوده های ساختاری و نشانه شناسانه ای دارد
سپس به شرح راه هایی میپردازد که روایت داستانی از طریق آنها از خود فاصله گرفته و نسبتی تاملی-انتقادی با خود می یابد و در گام آخر این ویژگی های تاملی که ویژگی هایی زمانمند است را در سه رمان نام آور یعنی کوه جادوی توماس مان، در جستجوی زمان از دست رفته ی مارسل پروست و خانم دالوویِ ویرجینیا وولف بازخوانی میکند
اثر برای دوستداران نقد ادبی به اندازه دوستداران فلسفه ادبیات جالب و آموزنده خواهد بود
هر سه جلد زمان و روایت (یا بطور دقیقتر سه بخش از چهار بخش آن) مجموعه ای از خوانشهای بینظیر، دقیق و نوآورانه است که از دل متفکرین مختلف مسیر اندیشه خود را باز میکند. اگر تجربه مدرنیته ی مارشال برمن را به عنوان یک معیار خوانش عالی برای طرح ایده های شخصی بدانیم، زمان و روایت به مراتب اثری وسیعتر، دقیقتر و پیچیده تر است. با نظامی وسیع و صورتبندی هگلی در تالیف دیالکتیکی روشهایی که از هر یک ویژگیهایی بیرون آورده تا در نقدی دست بالاتر به کارگرفته شوند
جلد دوم زمان و روایت میخواهد نشان دهد داستان، روایتمندی زندگی واقعی را نشان میدهد و برخلاف مدعای فرانک کرمود (که با ارجاع به نیچه، داستان را تسلای دروغین دربرابر بیسامانی زندگی معرفی میکند) زندگی با داستان غنی تر میشود و اصلا برای فهم زندگی به روایت کردن آن نیاز است
پس داستان چیزی از حقیقت دارد، نحوه ارجاع و حتی نحوه صدقی دارد که دیگر بازنمایاننده نیست، بلکه به دنیایی ارجاع میدهد که داستان برابر خواننده فرا می افکند. از دل این نکته متوجه میشویم که خواننده و خوانش اوست که این داستان را از طریق بازسازی پیرنگ داستان فرامی افکند
ریکور در جلد دوم با خوانشی دیالکتیکی از نورتروپ فرای و فرانک کرمود سراغ دگردیسیهای روایت داستانی و به ویژه رمان معاصر میرود تا نشان دهد آنها نیز حتی برخلاف مدعای خودشان از روایتمندی خالی نیستند
سپس به خوانش نشانه شناسانی مثل پروپ، گریماس و بارت پرداخته و نشان میدهد روایت چه محدوده های ساختاری و نشانه شناسانه ای دارد
سپس به شرح راه هایی میپردازد که روایت داستانی از طریق آنها از خود فاصله گرفته و نسبتی تاملی-انتقادی با خود می یابد و در گام آخر این ویژگی های تاملی که ویژگی هایی زمانمند است را در سه رمان نام آور یعنی کوه جادوی توماس مان، در جستجوی زمان از دست رفته ی مارسل پروست و خانم دالوویِ ویرجینیا وولف بازخوانی میکند
اثر برای دوستداران نقد ادبی به اندازه دوستداران فلسفه ادبیات جالب و آموزنده خواهد بود
September 18, 2013
If you can keep up with some of the literature he refers to, then this is an awesome book. If not, it is still an awesome book. His discussion of time and narrative (thus the title) is excellent. It takes a topic that seems simple, shows how complex it is, and simplifies the complexity.
I would recommend being familiar with the literature that he interacts with in this volume. Riceour gives great summaries, but it still helps to have read some of the literature he references. He devotes large portions to particular works. These are the works that I am recommending you read.
I would recommend being familiar with the literature that he interacts with in this volume. Riceour gives great summaries, but it still helps to have read some of the literature he references. He devotes large portions to particular works. These are the works that I am recommending you read.
June 27, 2021
Me pareció tedioso, respecto del primer volumen, sin embargo los análisis literarios de Proust, Woolf y Mann son excelentes.
March 4, 2025
The first chapter and a half was good, but then he got in the weeds with Greimas and others, diverted into some close readings that weren’t very close and that didn’t have a clear connection to the framework he built in the beginning, and then ended with a very wispy conclusion that also had a very annoying voice. I don’t think I’ve ever been truly annoyed at Ricoeur before. Like come on, where’s the meat, and can you please just define configuration and refiguration in the first place? And give Genette a little more credit for lowkey already having accomplished what you’re acting like you’re doing?
Signed, a grumpy professor
Signed, a grumpy professor
June 19, 2020
It seems that this volume, 2 of 3, stands the least on its own. On tap are the structuralists, semioticians, narratologists, and, at last, three modernist fictional texts. In Ricoeur's analysis of that last group the importance of death in his thought comes across more strongly than ever before.
April 20, 2023
He tenido que terminar el último apartado hoy, pero se me ha atragantado un poco. No me ha gustado tanto. Quizá se me ha pasado ya la fiebre ricoeuriana. Aun así, buen título y un tema de trabajo muy interesante e importante, aunque no esté de acuerdo con cómo lo enfoca Ricoeur: algo vacío.
May 25, 2024
I like Ricouer, but had trouble following most of this. I might want to reread it sometime, though.
November 21, 2017
Um dos grandes livros sobre tempo na narrativa de ficção, de um grande filósofo do tema. Muita gente diz que a teoria de Ricoeur é hermética. Em grande parte, eu não achei. Achei mesmo um rico livro que ajudará a estabelecer outras teorias e comparações em diversos estilos de narrativas, não apenas as tradicionais como o romance de ficção analisado minuciosamente neste livro.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews