The empty time in which no biographical change occurs is known as “adventure time”.
2. The adventure novel of everyday life
This type of novelistic form focuses on how time-space is represented through a personal and individual chronotope. Central to this chronotope is the theme of transformation. The adventure novel of everyday life has a character undergo a metamorphosis in which the reader is presented with “two images of an individual”, before and after the transformation (1981). These types of texts present exceptional and unusual moments in the character’s life. An example of this would be Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915) in which the main character transforms overnight into a giant insect.
3. Biography
In biographies, historical reality is only used as a way to disclose information about the subject. However, according to Bakhtin, historical reality does not shape or influence the characters. While biographies cannot alter the historical reality of the character, perspectives of the character can be changed through the author’s innovation in terms of structuring. Moreover, the decision to conceal, and sometimes later reveal, demonstrates how time can be adjusted within this genre.
4. The chivalric romance
The chivalric romance is close to the Greek romance in a number of ways, such as the testing of the hero, presumed deaths, and issues of identity. What makes this genre distinguishable from Greek romance is how turns of events and encounters of chance are normalized due to the “miraculous” nature of the world (Bakhtin, 1981). Adventure time in this genre is structured around the miraculous, as we see a “hyperbolization of time typical of the fairy tale: hours are dragged out, days are compressed into moments” (Bakhtin, 1981). The experimentation with time in this genre, according to Bakhtin, also corresponds to the “subjective playing with space, in which elementary spatial relationships and perspectives are violated” (Bakhtin, 1981).
5. The Rabelaisian novel
This genre, according to Bakhtin, is characteristic of Renaissance writer François Rabelais. Central to this genre are the figures of the clown, the rogue, and the fool, with the action taking place in public spaces such as fairs, markets, and, most importantly, the carnival. The Rabelaisian novel form is inspired by the carnival as a cultural phenomenon in which spatial-temporal relationships are exaggerated. This exaggeration and hyperbolization serves to contest traditional values, create a sense of confusion and disorientation, and parody existing power dynamics. For more information on Bakhtain’s view of the carnival, see our study guide “What is the Carnivalesque?”
6. The idyllic novel
The idyll chronotope is one which is connected to folkloric time and a sense of unity and familiarity within an enclosed community. Such spaces and communities are self-sufficient and closed off from the rest of the world.
This form comprises different kinds of idylls within literature: the love idyll (derived from the pastoral); the agricultural idyll; the craft-work idyll; and the family idyll. These are the pure forms of idylls, but there are also mixed types within literature. The idyllic chronotope can be seen in Thomas More’s Utopia (1516). Other texts have seen the sense of unity and conformity in such spaces as potentially threatening to the outsider and, as such, have depicted such places as superstitious and unwelcoming to the outside world. We can see this in folk horror films such as The Wicker Man (Hardy, 1973), or more recently, Midsommar (Aster, 2019).
In Narrative and Freedom (1994), Gary Saul Morson argues that
