Biographical Time Research Articles

CHILDHOOD IMAGE IN THE NOVEL “DAWN” BY B. K. ZAITSEV

The purpose of the article is to consider the specifics of depicting the theme of childhood in the novel “Dawn” by B. K. Zaitsev. In modern literary studies, the theme of childhood in the works of Russian writers who found themselves in exile after the revolutionary events is actively being developed and studied. The relevance of the work is due to the fact that it explores one of the important topics in the literature of the Russian diaspora. The novelty of the research consists in comparing the novel by B. K. Zaitsev with 19th century Russian classical prose about childhood, in clarifying the question of traditions and innovation in solving the theme of childhood by the writer of the Russian diaspora. The paper considers theoretical issues related to the spatial and temporal structure of the novel “Dawn,” the disclosure of the figurative and motivational series, artistic means and techniques. All this is necessary not only to understand the peculiarities of the embodiment of the childhood image in B. K. Zaitsev’s prose, but also to determine the national identity of Russian literature about childhood. In the center of Zaitsev’s novelis the image of a child living in a manor, which is depicted according to Russian literary traditions of the 18th — 19th centuries. Describing the ancestral “nest” with its material content, special semantics, autobiographical basis, recreating the world of a child, B. K. Zaitsev relies on the novel “Childhood” by L. N. Tolstoy. Idyllic time dominates the structure of the novel “Dawn.” Its important components include the motifs of light, aromas, smells, sounds of nature, the synesthesia characteristic of a child’s worldview. The child experiences the fullness of the joy of being akin to being in Eden. The world of childhood, permeated with Divine grace, apart from biographical and historical time, is addressed to the category of Eternity. Childhood is spiritualized and sacralized. Mother and father are organically included in the world of the novel, associated with the idea of the orderliness and stability of being. Family meals together and rituals become events that create an atmosphere of happiness. Children’s worldview is presented through a system of oppositions of “their own”/“someone else’s”space. Childhood is associated with thanatological events. The description of the reading circle becomes mandatory in revealing the inner world of the child hero. The writer’s novel is an example of an image of childhood conditioned by a new era, modernist innovations consisting in changing the relationship between the author and the child.

Adoption of Diabetes Technology in Denmark: Continuous Glucose Monitor as Time-Machine

ABSTRACT Health technologies to monitor glucose values are an important part of daily diabetes self-care. Based on 12 months of fieldwork in Denmark with 14 people with type 2 diabetes, I explore people’s experience of living with Continuous Glucose Monitoring. This new technology automatically measures glucose levels throughout the day but is not yet common in type 2 diabetes treatment in Denmark. In this article, I capture the social shaping of Continuous Glucose Monitoring, employing the concept of time. I show how adoption of the technology is embedded in a form of biographical time. This refers to people’s use of the technology linked to their stories about themselves. Drawing on a notion of habitus, people’s embodied past experiences and future prospects come to shape its use, I propose. My main claim is that while people with diabetes implement the technology into their lives in unique ways, adapting it to their circumstances and social conditions, practice of Continuous Glucose Monitoring reproduce social structures. This is evinced, I argue, in people’s tinkering with the technology and the frames of reference used to inform it. I introduce the term “tinkering in time”, highlighting the introduction of new health technology within the frame of lived human time.

Functions of intertextual inclusions in N. G. Chernyshevsky’s novel "What Is to Be Done?" (to the 195th anniversary of the birth)

The article examines the novel "What is to be done?" written by N. G. Chernyshevsky. In the post-Soviet space, this work again attracts the attention of researchers. The study focuses on one of the most significant aspects of text organisation essential for understanding its meaning and structure. It is intertext in the variety of its manifestations. The article considers its characterological and axiological (explication of Christian values) functions, as well as the role of intertextual inclusions in the formation of the author’s tone, in expanding the spatial and temporal boundaries of the narrative. The research method is intertextual analysis, i. e. identifying intertextual inclusions and their forms (quotations, allusions, reminiscences). The article investigates the relationship between the pre-text and the receiving context, the functions of intertext, as well as world-generating analysis (O. G. Revzina). The research reveals that N. G. Chernyshevsky organises the spatio-temporal structure of the narrative with the help of intertextual inclusions. The specificity of the narrative consists in the intertwined and interdependent relationship between the atemporal (the eternal values of Christianity) and the temporal (biographical and historical time of the characters and the author).

In pausa: i giovani e la gestione del “tempo vuoto” durante la pandemia da Covid-19

Discussing the results of a qualitative research conducted with Italian university students (19-27 years), the article analyses young people’s time management strategies during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The research highlights how the forced deceleration imposed by anti-Covid policies has rarely translated into a conscious “practice of the present” (Sloterdijk 2007). Rather, young people’s experience of the time during the pandemic is marked by a strong projection towards the future – expressed through compulsive practices of programming, planning and accumulation of skills (Rosa 2013) – and regression in the past – noticeable in the return to childhood practices, interests, and behaviors. The article reflects on the potential consequences produced by the combination of these two apparently antithetical dynamics in terms of a “leap” of the biographical time of youth.

“Rede hit sofft”: John Audelay's Practice of Care

“Rede hit sofft”: John Audelay's Practice of Care

Специфика первых автобиографических повествований северной литературы Якутии («Жизнь Имтеургина-старшего» Т. Одулока, «Моё детство» Н. Тарабукина)

The study aims to identify the properties and features of an autobiographical narrative in the first epic works of the northern literature of Yakutia (the Yukaghir novella “The Life of Imteurgin Senior” by T. Odulok and the Even novella “My Childhood” by N. Tarabukin). The paper examines the structure and type of narrative that determined the singularity of the genre and compositional-speech organisation of these works. The researcher traces the formation and specificity of autobiographical narrative forms in the northern literature of Yakutia, the development of the plot and chronotope of the novellas from the perspective of the author’s view of himself and history, as well as the functioning of autobiographical elements in the texts. The study is original in that it is the first to analyse the forms of expression of the “author’s self” (the author - autobiographical protagonist, the author-narrator, the author as a “prototype” of the protagonist, i.e. the biographical author as a “special subject of depiction” but not equal to the author-narrator), the correlation between the chronotopes of the protagonist and the author, biographical, historical and subjective time and space. As a result, the features of manifestation of the narrator, the character and the author in T. Odulok’s novella and the interaction of the author, the adult narrator and the child protagonist in N. Tarabukin’s novella have been determined.

Reading History across Space: The Room of Theories as a Web of Multiple Times in Don DeLillo’s Libra

This paper sheds light on the changing perspective of historiographic time in postmodernism and its tendency towards spatialization, as displayed in Don DeLillo's Libra (1988). The paper suggests that Branch’s room of theories leads to the spatialization of historiographic time in the narrative, considering that this room is the space where history leaves its imprints and where the past intersects with the present. Noting that spatialistion of time means the simultaneous juxtaposition of different times, this room manifests a simultaneous juxtaposition of moments, thus transporting the reader to different plots and times that coexist spatially. It helps the reader to receive the textualized version of history, as it embraces documents, archives, videos, and reports that are associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Branch displays to the reader that history is relative and that nobody can reach a historical truth. Thus, considering that such a reading is less trodden, this paper discusses how Branch's room of theories is an outlet to other different times: the conspirators’ time and Oswald’s biographical time, which makes the historigographic time in this novel seem more spatial. Keywords: Spatialization, historiographic time, Libra, Don DeLillo, present, and the room of theories.

The Mythology of Time in Modern Foreign period dramas: between Retrotopia and Metamodern Sensibility

. The purpose of this article is to analyze the specifics of the mythologizing of time in the historical period dramas "Downton Abbey" and "The Crown" in the context of the transition from the postmodern paradigm to a new metamodern sensibility. The article summarizes the experience of domestic and foreign studies of the metamodern tendencies of the modern TV series and analyzes the theoretical issues of the mythological temporality of TV series production. On the basis of the theoretical concept of retrotopia by Z. Bauman, the concept of layers of cinematic temporality by N.E. Marievskaya and the critical discourse analysis of S. Jäger, the features of the mythologization of horizontal, vertical time, as well as the biographical time of characters in selected period dramas have been analyzed. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the problematization and analysis of the discursive environment of the deployment of the temporal mythology of the modern period drama. The modern historical period drama demonstrates the specifics of turning to retrotopia, as it seeks to represent the current problems of the present through an imaginary past. In the case of the “Downton Abbey”, this happens through the harmonization in the viewer's mind of nostalgia for an imaginary English aristocratic past and an unstable future. In the case of the “The Crown”, the presentation of the private life of the British royal family against the backdrop of historical events contributes to the formation of a more multidimensional image of the present and responds to the demands of the mass audience in the emotional representation of historical events. The result of this representation is a kind of mythology of time, which arises between the cultural demand for retrotopia and the development of modern technologies for the production of cinematographic products, which makes it possible to fully realize the intention of modern metamodernist discourse to achieve a “new sensibility”. This allows us to consider the modern historical period drama not only as a "commercial project", but also as a tool for the development of historical culture, an instrument of cultural orientation in social space and time.

Comparing regional patterns of homeownership entry across four British birth cohorts

Difficulties accessing homeownership and reduced rates of owner-occupation among recent birth cohorts are a major concern for Global North policymakers. However, surprisingly little is known about how patterns of entry into homeownership have varied spatially across the early lives of recent birth cohorts. Using life course perspectives and survey data, this study examines how regional disparities in homeownership trajectories and transitions have varied across the life courses of four birth cohorts who entered the British housing system after 1990. The results show a nonlinear pattern of postponed homeownership across cohorts which has not varied greatly across regions. London is the most distinctive area and delayed homeownership transitions have long been a feature of the capital’s housing market. Taken together, the findings illustrate the value of more thoroughly examining how place intersects with biographical and historical time in nuanced ways to shape housing careers.

Untangling the Latin American child: heterogeneous temporalities of Latin American “modern” childhoods

ABSTRACT In this article, we analyse childhood and modernity as both analytical tools for understanding Latin American childhoods and as hegemonic categories, central to establishing social hierarchies and identity formations. Instead of taking for granted modern/traditional or North/South as heuristic categories that guide understandings of commonalities, differences, and singularities, we explore the usefulness of temporality. We propose a focus on how heterogeneous temporalities contribute to the production of childhoods in a historical narrative. This narrative incorporates multiple temporalities in a hierarchical regime in which those seen as “modern” and “civilized” are assumed as the only possible temporalities, while at the same time becoming part of the processes of differentiation, order, and social change. The temporal dimension involves exploring the tensions between biographical, state, and institutional time scales, and the multiple temporalities of globalisation. This requires the unravelling of the complexities of the historical dimension of being a child to understand how, specifically, Latin American childhoods are caught between heterogeneous temporalities. We apply these categories to analyse the case of child circulation in Latin America, as a historical example in which heterogeneous temporalities are expressed. Together, modernity and time(s) are powerful tools for unpacking the unequal distribution of the future(s) through the production of the “Latin American child”.

Towards a geography of queer temporalities: Time, space and rural–urban migrant gay men's exploration of sexuality in China

AbstractBuilding on the geography of sexualities and queer temporality studies, this research investigates the entanglement of sexuality, time and space with a case study of rural–urban migrant gay men in China. Based on participant observations and in‐depth interviews with 46 Chinese rural–urban migrant gay men, we identify three forms of queer temporality – queer biographical time, queer life stage, and queer clock time – emerging from Chinese gay men's life stories. We also demonstrate how these different forms of queer temporality are conditioned by and influence certain spatial practices among our informants. In doing so, this analysis contributes to the geographical research on sexuality by challenging the rural/urban dichotomy in the existing literature on the one hand, and exploring the possibilities for a geography of queer temporality on the other.

Time Horizon: Intersections of Deep Time and Biographical Time on the West Shore, Stromness, Orkney

What is the significance of a human life in relation to the timespan of the geological processes that shape and reshape the terrain under our feet? Here, we ask how we might think on a planetary scale while being grounded in the everyday, tracing the relationship between biographical time and geological formation. Examining social relationships through the materiality of sandstone, uranium, and concrete, this paper presents a collaborative deep time practice, realized through the iterative process of walking, reading and inscribing a specific site, the West Shore of Stromness, Orkney.

Prostorske strukture v avtobiografskih delih jugoslovanskih pisateljic 20. in 30. let 20. stoletja

In the focus of the comparative study are four autobiographical works of Yugoslav female writers. The book Moja pota [My Way, 1933] by Marija Kmet (1891–1974) is written in Slovenian; Ein Mensch wird [By Myself] by Alma Karlin (1889–1950) was created in 1931 in German and published only in 2010 in the Slovenian translation Sama. The autobiogra- phical novel Kamen na cesti [A Stone on the Road, 1937] by the Croatian writer Marija Jurić Zagorka (1873–1957) and the autobiographical novel Moja prijateljica [My Friend, 1920] by the Slovenian author Zofka Kveder (1878–1926) are also explored.The study of autobiographical texts inevitably turns to the so-called extratextual real- ity, to writers’ biographies. The lives of these four authors born in Austria–Hungary were different. The German-speaking Slovene Alma Karlin became a traveller around the world. The first female professional Slovenian writer Zofka Kveder worked as a magazine editor, lived in different cities, wrote in three languages (Slovenian, Croatian, and German). The Slovene Maria Kmet worked as a teacher all her life. Maria Jurić Zagorka was the most widely read writer of her time in the Croatian lands and became the first Croatian female journalist. At the same time, their autobiographical experience reflected in the texts reveals much in common. The writers often changed their place of residence. The subject of the research is the spatial structures of four texts.In autobiographical works, there are specific spatiotemporal relations: the history of the formation of personality (the biographical time) is often connected with the expansion of space. First, an autobiographical character perceives only the space of a room (for ex- ample, a nursery), then the whole house. He or she makes various trips; often in the auto- biographies the spaces of educational institutions are described. As the characters mature, spaces expand and multiply.The autobiographical mode of narration of the four works under consideration deter- mined the spatial structures of texts, in which an individual–collective dichotomy is pre- sent. With the uniqueness of each human biography, all life paths reveal similar stages, which were reflected in the category of space. On the one hand, in many autobiographies, there are the so-called locus communis (the space of one’s home, the school, places for children’s games and walks, and a workplace). On the other hand, the geography of move- ments across different spaces is always unique.The similarity of some spatial motifs in the texts by Kmet, Karlin, Kveder, and Za- gorka can be explained by genre topics and general historical events (World War I, the collapse of Austria–Hungary) as well as the gender specificity of the texts (a big city gives a woman at the beginning of the 20th century the possibilities of self-realization, expands her social sphere but at the same time it is a dangerous space for her, full of temptations).

CHURCH CALENDAR, GOSPEL AND LITURGICAL TEXT IN THE NOVEL THE RAW YOUTH AND A WRITER'S DIARY (1876) BY FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

F. M. Dostoevsky's novel The Raw Youth (1874-1875) and A Writer's Diary (1876) were created in the tradition of Christian calendar prose, which is aligned with sacred time. The two works are united by the idea of the religious transformation of personality, the salvation of the soul and unification around the Gospel Truth, the search for ideal foundations in the Russian people, and reflections on their purpose. Dostoevsky introduces Easter narratives into the novel and into A Writer's Diary in 1876: the story of Makar Dolgoruky about the merchant Skotoboinikov, the opera by Trishatov, the story The Peasant Marey. The plot and storyline motives of these works and the novel go back to the parable of the Prodigal Son and the Book of Job. They share the motives of suffering, redemption and resurrection. A Writer's Diary of 1876, which utilizes a system of references to the novel, starts from January and contains a reference to the celebration of the Nativity (the Christmas story The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree, quotes from a Christmas worship service), and ends in December, at the beginning of advent. A Writer's Diary contains an appeal to Christmas and Easter as the most significant dates of the church calendar and the writer's personal biographical time. In the chapter More on a simple but tricky case (December), Dostoevsky recalls how he survived the December 22 execution on the Semyonovsky parade ground and a revival on Christmas Eve; in the Easter story The Peasant Marey (February), he tells the story of how he acquired faith in the Russian people in penal servitude during Easter. The author's position in the novel The Raw Youth and A Writer's Diary of 1876 can’t be comprehended without referring to the gospel and liturgical text. The Gospel parable of the Prodigal Son and the Book of Job, which are referenced in the novel and A Writer's Diary, are read in church before and during Great Lent.

At the helm of haart: The experience of biographical time among people living with hiv in Nigeria

HIV is a chronic illness that does not yet have a cure but can be managed over a period (of time). HIV management is a biographical experience, structured by its temporal essence. Time is woven into the biographical structure of HIV management, meaning that an HIV diagnosis accelerates a person’s biographical awareness of temporality, which they may have previously taken for granted. This study explores the experiences of biographical time in people living with HIV. Thirty-two qualitative interviews were conducted with HIV-positive individuals, recruited via two HIV support groups in south-west Nigeria and have been living with HIV for at least two years. The transcribed interviews were analysed using thematic method of analysis. Four forms of biographical temporal orientation emerged from the participants’ experience of living with HIV in everyday life. These forms of temporal orientation—‘improvement on the past’, ‘living in the ambitious present’, ‘living in the curative future’ and ‘worried about the future’ are presented in this paper The participants compare their past and present, map out changes that has occurred in comparative terms and draw useful implications that are likely to predict or shape their future temporal outcomes. The experience of biographical temporality in HIV-positive individuals reveals a wide array of interpersonal, personal and social issues that are widely connected to the everyday management of HIV, which may be useful to global health agencies, international donor organisations, national government and counsellors and healthcare professionals in the delivery of healthcare services.

Changes in Sexual Identity Labels in a Contemporary Cohort of Emerging Adult Women: Patterns, Prevalence and a Typology

ABSTRACT Sexual attraction, behavior and identity are subject to change across the life course for some individuals, and certain developmental periods such as emerging adulthood appear particularly conducive to this. However, the evidence documenting these phenomena comes overwhelmingly from data collected 10–20 years ago. In the brief interlude since, the socio-political context has changed markedly and increasing numbers of women are reporting non-heterosexuality. Drawing on contemporary data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (n = 16,870), we provide up to date evidence on changes in sexual identity labels among emerging adult women. We found that 19% of women changed their sexual identity label from one survey wave to the next, and 30.6% changed their identity label at least once across the four waves. Mostly heterosexual and bisexual labels were both more common and more stable in our sample than in previous studies. We propose a new typology of sexual identity sequences and fit this to our data, providing a blueprint for researchers looking to define sexual minority status longitudinally. Findings suggest that the ways women perceive and label their sexual orientation should be treated as dynamic phenomena situated within the nested temporalities of biographical and historical time.

School caringscapes: Understanding how time and space shape refugee and immigrant adolescents’ caring practices and wellbeing in Danish schools

Schools are increasingly cited as spaces of support for learners facing adversity. It is therefore not surprising that recent migration flows have contributed to a mushrooming of school-focused policies and interventions looking to promote the mental health and wellbeing of refugee and immigrant learners. In response to a research focus on how teachers, schools and school-based interventions care for the wellbeing of vulnerable leaners, this article explores ethnographically how school-going refugee and immigrant adolescents develop their own practices of care for self and others. It draws on fieldwork carried out between December 2018 and June 2019 and includes participant observations in two Danish preparatory classes for newcomers and in-depth interviews with 13 learners and five teachers. Drawing on the concepts of caringscapes and carescapes, our analysis not only reveals how newcomers form significant caring practices, and co-produce spaces that foster collective wellbeing, but highlights the temporally and spatially bounded nature of their care. We found their caring practices to be oriented in relation to biographical time, highlighting how newcomers enrol past experiences, present needs and future aspirations in their caring. We also noted that newcomers’ caring practices are contingent on the character of their school environments, including teacher practices, and wider policy contexts around refugee and immigrant children's education and residence. We conclude that efforts to understand and promote refugee and immigrant learners’ wellbeing in school contexts must take heed of the temporally and spatially bounded nature of their agentic capabilities to care for themselves and their peers.

Эвристическая доминанта в романе Ч. Айтматова «Тавро Кассандры»

The article for the first time theoretically justifies adequacy of using the term “heuristic literature” in relation to Ch. Aitmatov’s works. Originality of the analytical approach includes identifying similarity of the author’s biographical time, space and the text chronotope. The hypothesis that the American futurologist Alvin Toffler served as the main character’s prototype is discussed. The findings indicate that the novel’s dominant focus lies in artistic development of relevant problems of the modernity that constitute axiological foundation of modern aesthetic discourse.

Coming of age with HIV: a temporal understanding of young women’s experiences in Zambia

ABSTRACT Young perinatally-infected women living with HIV in Zambia grew up alongside antiretroviral therapy (ART) roll-out and expanding prevention programmes. We used Bonnington’s temporal framework to understand how HIV impacted the experiences of these women over time. Data were drawn from two sequential studies with a cohort of young women living with HIV: a qualitative study in 2014–16 and an ethnographic study in 2017–18. Data from workshops, in-depth interviews, participant observation and diaries were analysed thematically, guided by three temporalities within the framework: everyday, biographical and epochal time. In everyday time, repetitive daily treatment-taking reminded young women of their HIV status, affecting relationships and leading to secrecy with ART. In biographical time, past events including HIV disclosure, experiences of illness, and loss shaped present experiences and future aspirations. Lastly, in epochal time, the women’s HIV infection and their survival were intimately interlinked with the history of ART availability. The epochal temporal understanding leads us to extend Reynolds Whyte’s notion of “biogeneration” to conceptualise these women, whose experiences of living with HIV are enmeshed with their biosocial environment. Support groups for young women living with HIV should help them to process biographical events, as well as supporting their everyday needs.

Levels of intersecting temporalities in young men’s orientation to the future. A cross-national case comparison

Inspired by G.H. Mead’s philosophy of time and his focus on the present as the site of interpretation of past experiences and thoughts about the future, this paper makes cross-national comparisons between four cases of young Norwegian and British men. The method is case-based biographical analysis. Levels of biographical time, family time and historical time intersect in young men’s orientation to the future in a present set in the current contexts of Norway and Britain. The overarching question addresses if and how timing at the biographical level, related to family time and resources, harmonise with features of opportunity structures in the national contexts. Two typologies are identified: those whose future orientations correspond with standards for ‘successful’ trajectories are named confident continuity while cautious contingency characterises the orientation of those whose biographical timing of transitions is not in synchrony with family time nor with standards in the current opportunity structure.