All Kinds of Time

Via Rome:

“…22 The immediate mimetic aim of lines 3 -9 of the text appears to be to reproduce the experience of being drawn into thinking about the ruin, of letting one's gaze drift over its uneven surfaces, and of considering in various combinations its past, present, and future forms -it would surely be hard to think of a more determined attempt to represent the "heterogeneity of the present" adduced by Dinshaw. 23 As an introduction to the work, the impact of lines 1 -9 is in equal measure arresting and disorienting. This opening does more than simply encourage identification with the text's speaker; it repositions the audience at the speaker's shifting temporal viewpoint.…”

“…Researchers in both camps have met over the recognition that the present, in Carolyn Dinshaw's words, "is not a singular, fleeting moment but comprises relations to other times, other people, other worlds." 3 Viewed from this perspective, the procedures of both medieval and medievalist texts can be seen to correspond, and the distinction between what is medieval and what comes afterwards is blurred.…”