Изоморфизм категорий времени и пространства в романе Д. Делилло «Падающий человек»

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to determine the peculiarities of perception of the category of time by the characters interpreting it as space based on the material of D. DeLillo’s novel “Falling Man”: instead of vertically (chronologically) unfolding, the past, present and future simultaneously merge at one point on a horizontal plane. Scientific originality of the study lies in clarifying the interdependencies between the character’s emotional-volitional state and his/her mental combination of the present, past and future in terms of simultaneity. As a result, it has been found that in the mind of a psychologically traumatised character, all three time layers are characterised by the same degree of simultaneity as individual points in physical space, they “freeze” at the same moment, thus transforming into “the eternal present”. The narrative, which reflects the character’s memory, is modelled by the narrator as a kind of springboard on which narratives of past and present events collide simultaneously and on a selective basis.