‘Catching Time’: the synchrony of minds, bodies and objects in literature Isabelle Wentworth A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Arts and Media Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences March 2019 Thesis/Dissertation Sheet Surname/Family Name : Wentworth Given Name/s : Isabelle Abbreviation for degree as give in the University : PhD calendar Faculty : Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences School : School of Arts and Media Thesis Title : ‘Catching Time’: the synchrony of minds, bodies and objects in literature Abstract Recent work in the neuroscience of time perception has revealed that humans have an unconscious capacity to ‘catch’, or synchronise with, other people’s subjective experience of time. This process has, I argue, been profoundly intuited by authors in their fictional explorations of time and subjectivity. Literary discourse offers a privileged site for explorations of temporal synchronisation, as authors are able to frame, refract and nuance the relationships they depict, so broadening our understanding of the role of subjective temporality within them. Yet there is a lack of understanding of the precise ways in which time, bodies and environments are intertwined, both in literary studies and cognitive science. This is a significant gap, because subjective time — the experience of temporal properties of events and processes, in particular duration — provides the organising fabric of conscious experience, both for fictional and actual minds. My methodology combines cognitive poetics, cognitive linguistics and cognitive historicism. Through this multifaceted lens, I show how thinking through this intersubjective time can help us understand questions of style, character and plot in narrative. Furthermore, my research expands our understanding of temporal synchronisation, revealing aspects of this cognitive phenomenon that science hasn’t yet established. In particular, literature demonstrates that temporal synchronisation can occur through two avenues: between people, as cognitive science has studied, and which I explore in my first chapter through Don DeLillo’s The Body Artist. Secondly, between people and objects —a phenomenon which has been illuminated by literature, rather than cognitive science. My second chapter starts here, looking at the influence that family homes can have on their inhabitants in Lisa Gorton’s The Life of Houses. Expanding my analysis beyond the bounds of the Western, Anglophone world, I show how this human/object temporal influence exists across linguo-cultural regions, exploring Isabel Allende’s La casa de los espíritus and Martín Felipe Castagnet’s Los cuerpos del Verano. My contribution is theoretical, offering not just original readings of texts but new methodological directions for literature and cognitive science, gesturing towards a new way of understanding time, bodies and environment. Declaration relating to disposition of project thesis/dissertation I hereby grant to the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all property rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. 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Date ……19/11/19……………………………………….............................. i Table of Contents Originality Statement ......................................................................................... iii Inclusion of Publications Statement .................................................................. iv List of Publications .............................................................................................. v Acknowledgements .............................................................................................. vi Abstract ............................................................................................................... vii ‘Catching Time’: theoretical orientation and literature review ......................... 1 ‘Body Time’: Don DeLillo’s The Body Artist ................................................... 32 Part 1. Theorising time in The Body Artist .................................................. 32 1.1 Criticism surrounding the novel ............................................................. 40 Part 2: Analysis of time in The Body Artist ................................................ 44 2.1 Lauren’s motor resonance ...................................................................... 47 2.2 Lauren’s shifting sense of time .............................................................. 50 2.3 Lauren’s changing self-identity ............................................................. 56 Concluding Thoughts .................................................................................... 63 Home Time: Lisa Gorton’s The Life of Houses ............................................... 65 Part 1. Anthropomorphic Temporal Synchronisation............................... 65 1.1 Critical lineage of objects and literature ................................................ 68 1.2 Underpinnings of ATS in cognitive science .......................................... 75 Part 2. Analysis of time in The Life of Houses ............................................ 78 2.1 The Sea House’s physical influence ...................................................... 82 2.2 Emotional influences .............................................................................. 89 2.3 The influence of stereotyping ................................................................ 92 2.4 Kit’s character development .................................................................. 98 ii Concluding Thoughts .................................................................................. 103 Time Across Worlds: Isabel Allende’s La casa de los espíritus ..................... 106 Part 1. ATS, chronemics, and Latin American magic realism ............... 106 1.1 ATS and Cognitive Cultural Studies .................................................... 110 1.2 Chronemics: polychronicity and monochronicity ................................ 112 1.3 Critical reception of La casa de los espíritus ....................................... 115 Part 2. ATS within La casa de los espíritus................................................ 120 2.1 The Big House on the Corner anthropomorphised .............................. 121 2.2 The Temporality of The Big House on the Corner .............................. 126 2.3 Physical Structure of The Big House on the Corner ............................ 130 2.4 Alba’s Sense of Time ........................................................................... 135 2.5 A New Phase in The Big House on the Corner ................................... 143 2.6 The Re-Awakening of The Big House on the Corner ......................... 151 Concluding Thoughts .................................................................................. 155 Time, Technology and the Body: Martín Felipe Castagnet’s Los cuerpos del verano ............................................................................................................... 156 Part 1. Living in the future ......................................................................... 156 1.1 Time, Literature and the Digital Age ................................................... 164 Part 2. Embodied Identification with Digital Technology ....................... 172 2.1 Anthropomorphism and Technomorphism .......................................... 174 2.2 Digital Time ........................................................................................