From ticks to tricks of time: narrative and temporal configuration of experience

Abstract

The paper examines narrative operations involved in the temporal configuration of experience within a general framework of the phenomenological treatment of temporality. Taking as its point of departure a most basic instantiation of temporal experience, namely that of a ticking clock, it argues that the narrative dynamics which give form and charge the interval between tick and tock with significant duration are directly derived from the time-constituting operations of the embodied mind and, as such, are independent of their linguistic articulations. Thus, it critically invokes Husserl's account of time-consciousness, more specifically his model of retention-primary impressionprotention, first in the context of Francisco J. Varela's account of the neurodynamics of lived time, and then with reference to David Carr's argument for continuity between narrative and the world of our experiences and actions. Building on these critical trajectories, the paper outlines how proto-narrative elements of lived time form a basis for the properly narrative operation of emplotment and, in its final section, discusses some of the complex relations between lived time and narrative time by contrasting Carr's account of narrative with Paul Ricoeur's model of triple mimesis.

Saying something with nothing: Refusal, avoidance and resistance in participant non-response

“…Phenomenologically, any symbolic objects of relevance were recessed in the background of the perceptual field, inaccessibly held out of awareness (Heidegger, 1927;Husserl, 1913). Scanning their biographical landscape through the perspective of hindsight review (Freeman, 2010;Misztal, 2020), there were no focal figures on the horizon, just an empty space. As one participant put it, perceiving the absence of substantive content, 'Nothing stands out to me' (Tabitha).…”