The Relevance of Theme and Time in Narrative "Time Construction"

The point of view of the present research is another look at the concept of time in literature and its purpose is to study and explain the surface construction and deep construction of narratives by insisting on the element of “Time Construction.” The author believes that in addition to the time of the incident and the time of the narration, there is also a third time - based on the space, incident and theme - in the story, which is the result of the interweaving of the incident with the time of its occurrence outside the story. In other words, sometimes the author delicately makes a connection between bitter events in winter or night and happiness in spring or daylight, and this combination - which of course has various forms - is interpreted as "Time Construction." What forms the basis of the current research is how to produce meaning as a result of this time transformation based on space and incident and its interweaving with the time of nature in fiction literature. The author has tried by citing limited (but accurate) evidence, while analyzing the dimensions of "Time Construction" in narratives, to explain the process of producing meaning. The results of the present research show that the appropriateness of theme and time in fiction leads to four narrative structures that are involved in the process of creating meaning.
Introduction:
Narrative is one of the easiest and most practical tools for humans to express events, internal states, and sensory experiences. It has permeated not only the realm of imagination but also the reality of modern life. According to Brannon Thomas, “narrative is one of the pillars of our identity as humans and is fundamentally important for understanding how time is processed in our minds, as well as for the functioning of memory and our perception of our own identity” (Thomas 1400:19). Narrative has multiple dimensions and is evident in cinema, literature, history, theater, and more.
One of the categories and subtle elements in narratives is the element of “time”. The element of time in narrative includes two areas: “story time (measured by century, day, hour, etc.) and the number of lines and pages) (Zhou, 2015, p. 51). Story time refers to the chronological time of events, which is a quantitative dimension and can be measured using tools. The purpose of this study is to examine the concept of time from a different perspective. Rather than measuring the duration of events. The authors aim to explore the relationship between natural time and the fictional time within certain narratives. Our focus is on the narrated time in the story, which is anchored to an external temporal framework and is referred to as “constructed time” in narratology.
Methodology:
We believe that narrative involves a change in character, event, and time. In other words, a narrative involves a text that has a change at the end compared to the beginning, and this change sometimes occurs in character (a thief who repents), event (beginning with conflict and conflict, ending with calm and tranquility), or time (night-day/winter-spring).
The present research focuses on the study of superstructure (the plot structure of the narrative) and deep structure (the analysis of time structure and its relationship with other story elements in the process of meaning production). Its goal is to examine the relationship between the type of event, in terms of content, and the timing of its occurrence in natural time.
Results and Discussion:
The transition from bitter events in winter and night to happiness in spring and summer, or vice versa, is a prominent feature of this narrative category. An in-depth analysis of this transition leads to the creation of meaning and its artistic application, revealing the hidden structural elements within the narratives. The research results also indicate that there are fixed forms of the relationship between time and incident in the narratives, which contribute to the production of meaning. For example, bitter narratives often begin in winter or at night and continue through the bitterness of these times, typically lacking a happy ending. Conversely, narratives that start in spring are filled with joy and happiness and conclude in spring.
The present research identifies four distinct forms of the relationship between time and incident (time-structure) and examines their roles in the deep structure of narratives and the production of meaning. Beyond being a key component in narrative formation, the element of time also significantly influences the relationship between incident and meaning production. The explanation of the superstructure and deep structure of narratives reveals another hidden form of time called "time-structure", which shows the temporal context of the formation of events in calendar time (day and night and seasons) in stories and shares a kind of interweaving between external time and the themes of the event in the narrative.
Conclusion:
The element of time, in addition to being one of the influential components in the formation of narratives, also plays a significant role in the relationship between the event and the production of meaning. The explanation of the superstructure and deep structure of narratives expresses another hidden form of time under the title of "time-structure", which shows the temporal context of the formation of events in calendar time (day and night and seasons) in stories and shares a kind of interweaving between external time and the themes of the event in the narrative.