Reading time: experiencing story time in postmodernist fiction

Abstract

Doktoritöö fookuses on lugemisprotsess ja lugeja loominguline panus teose aja tõlgendamisel. Lähenen lugemisprotsessile kui kihilisele kogemusele, milles loetavat kogetakse nii füüsilise teksti kujul kui ka kujuteldavate sündmuste ja tegelaste kaudu. Kuna füüsilisel kujul on loo sisu tekstina kirjas, võib öelda, et teose sündmused on nii ruumiliselt kui ka füüsiliselt kohal juba enne lugemisprotsessi algust. Sündmused püsivad paigal, kuni lugeja teose avab ning loob staatilisest tekstist dünaamilise ja elava loomaailma. Teose ajalist struktuuri saab mõista teksti- ja looaja kaudu. Looaeg viitab sündmuste jadale loomaailma sees, ajale, mida kogevad teose tegelased. Tekst kui füüsiline objekt aga looaega ei esita. Tekst esitab fikseeritud narratiivi, kus sündmuste ajaline jada püsib muutumatuna. Samas looaeg, mille järgi kujuteldavas maailmas sündmused kulgevad, on palju paindlikum kategooria. Looaeg kulgeb dünaamiliselt, kujunedes lugeja ja teksti koosmõjul ning lähtudes kujunemisprotsessis lugeja tekstitõlgendusest. Doktoritöö teoreetiline raamistik põhineb fenomenoloogial, retseptsiooniteooriatel, ajafilosoofial ja narratiiviuuringutel. Erinevate lähenemisviiside kombineerimisel moodustub analüütiline tööriist, mis võimaldab uurida teose looaega, lähtudes lugeja tekstiaja tõlgendusest. Arutlemaks individuaalsete lugejate loodud looaja vormide üle, uurin tekstielemente, millel on looaja kujunemisele kõige suurem mõju. Olen analüüsiks valinud postmodernistlikud romaanid, mille tekstiajad on mõneti mitmetähenduslikud. Lähilugemise kaudu uurin valitud romaanide ajalisust ning seda, kuidas tekstid mõjutavad lugejaid lineaarse looaja loomisel, millised tekstielemendid soodustavad ning millised segavad ja takistavad looaja kujunemise protsessi. Doktoritöö põhieesmärk on mõista, kuidas lugeja ja teksti vahelise kommunikatsiooni kaudu moodustub loomaailm – tegelaste ja sündmuste tervikpilt, mille paneb kokku lugeja lugemisprotsessi vältel.

The process of reading operates on multiple experiential levels: the experience of physical text, of words that can be read, as well as of fictional events within immersive storyworlds. The events of the novel are spatially and physically present before the beginning of our reading process. Each word and character is in its place before the reader begins her journey through the storyworld as the structure of the narrative is inscribed within the physical book. Before the reading process, the temporality of the novel is static, events stay still until the reader actualizes the narrative. When the reader enters the world of the novel, she will produce a temporalized story from the static text. Rooted in the traditions of phenomenology, reader-response theories, analytical philosophy, and narratology, the project focuses on studying narrative time through the perspective of the reader. The dissertation is devoted to identifying the ways in which readers collaborate with the text to produce story time. Story time refers to the sequence of events within the storyworld, the time period that is represented by narrative content, as if experienced by the characters. Since the organization of narrative of most novels does not consist of a real-time unfolding of events, the structure of story time is often distinct from the structure of narrative discourse. While I consider narrative discourse to be a fixed aspect of text, story time is a more fluid category. Guided by the form and content of the narrative, story time is ultimately shaped by the reader’s interpretation of narrative discourse. The fictional worlds that unravel in the reading process require an active reader who is ready to engage with the narrative in order to assemble stories. Through a close reading of postmodern novels, I study the temporalizing act of producing story time that the reader performs while reading literature. In order to discuss the different shapes story time may take in individual readers’ interpretations, I examine which textual elements have the greatest effect on the production of story time. Thus, the main objective of this dissertation is to understand how the intimate communication between reader and text produces stories – collections of characters and events that are shaped into a specific timeline of activities and processes that gradually unfold during the reading process.