A Critical Context for the Carver Chronotope

Abstract

Raymond Carver (1938-88) is often credited with single-handedly inspiring a renaissance of the short story in America, and with giving voice to a submerged population, who before his time had not been adequately recognized in the cultural space of American literature.1 Carver devoted his whole career as a writer to working within two genres—the short story and the lyric poem—both of which are, within the context of late twentieth- century literature and culture, assuredly minor artistic genres. And yet, in spite of working within these marginal genres, Carver somehow managed to create some major artistic and cultural effects. His writing has the ability to affect individual readers, including many who do not usually read literature,2 and is a lightning rod for cultural and aesthetic debate surrounding issues of the writer's role in contemporary North American life.