Time reversal in fiction : what does it do?

Abstract

This thesis is a cognitive approach to what time reversal can do in a work of fiction. I base my discussion on the close reading of predominantly three texts of absolute time reversal: Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow, Alejo Carpentier’s “Viaje a la semilla” and Ilse Aichinger’s “Spiegelgeschichte”. All three texts have received much interest separately and mostly in their respective regional contexts, but I wish to compare the three to see what time reversal tends to add to a story as a narrative strategy. I aim to demonstrate how time reversal can have at least three cognitive functions. This particular narrative strategy can (1) increase the focus on the ethical dimension of a story, (2) excite emotive effects such as humor or horror, and (3) facilitate psychological portrayals of alternative world views (especially pathological). In treating this subject matter my thesis joins relatively few and recent publications, and I draw heavily on the work of scholars such as James Phelan (in press), Seymour Chatman (2009) and Erika Greber (2007).