Narrative and Freedom: The Shadows of Time

Rating:
Summary: "Time is always open and will always be open"
Review: The thesis of the Book is the title of this Review. I can hardly believe that no one has written a review for this book before this, as it really deserves more notice than it has received. Morson, a leading Slavic scholar has also written on Bakhtin, Dostoevsky and other works on Russian Literature. In this book he uses the expertise of his previous work, and also draws on works by writers as divserse as Cervantes, George Eliot and Stephen Jay Gould, as well as Television and Movies, to try illustrate the complex relationships between literature, philsophy and time, with uneven, yet often fascinating results. I have not read anything this original lately, pertaining in particular to Literature and Time. It somewhow reminds me in tone of Bergson's "Time and Free Will", yet is totally different. There is also, especially in the discussion of the role of the Narrator, a kinship to Umberto Eco, especially: "Six Walks in the fictional Woods". Yet Morson creates his own concepts of which the most fascinating, each receiving a Chapter of their own, are Foreshadowing, Sideshadowing and Backshadowing. It is not always convincing, but when it works it is very good. It incidentally works best when Morson uses examples from Dostoevesky, Tolstoy and Bakhtin. For example, the foreshadowing in "The Idiot" is quite interesting, as is his discussion of the role of the Narrator in "The Demons". The Chapter on "Bakhtin's Indeterminism" may be one of the most original Bakhtin interpretations I have read to date. The main thesis of the Book, on the openness of time, comes appropriately form Bakhtin's: "Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics". - Read the Book.