Monograph Issue No. 20. Mikhail Bakhtin’s Chronotope: Time and Space in Flash Fiction Edited by July Seda Carrero. University of Puerto Rico at Carolina
Narrative, in general, requires time and space to establish a context in which the plot unfolds. Thus, in the novel, the short story, and flash fiction, time and space serve to weave together the stories that are to be presented. In flash fiction, time and space help frame the ephemeral nature of what is being narrated. According to Bakhtin's chronotope, time and space are intrinsically connected in literary texts. However, hyperbrevity often causes these elements in micro-stories to be condensed or elided. Brevity conditions a change in the formal categories of the narrative text; that is, in character development, plot, dialogue, surprising endings, linguistic experimentation, and time and space. The following areas of study are proposed for this issue:
1. Real or imaginary spaces in microfiction
2. Intertextuality: interchangeable time and space
3. Metaphorical spaces: contributions to the micro-story
4. Urban spaces and microfiction
5. Ellipsis: requirement of an active reader to fill in the narrative gaps
6. Manipulation of temporal order: chronology or anachrony (analepsis or prolepsis) in the text
7. Adventure chronotope: interchangeable spaces
8. Connections between time, space, and characters (literary or historical)
9. Microfiction in media res
10. History (eras, movements, characters, events) and microfiction
11. Presence or absence of time and space in microfiction
12. Relationship between time, space, and title
13. Time and space according to the author’s intention: social or political criticism/denunciation
Deadlines:
Submission of articles until February 1, 2027
Publication of the monograph: May 1, 2027
