Chronotope (from the Greek: kronos = time and topos = space, place) is known as the space- time frame in which a literary argument develops , or, more technically, in the field of literature theory , the connection and structure of the temporal and spatial relationships artistically assimilated in a literary work .
The chronotope is the space-time unit , indissoluble and expressive in nature. It is a flow of time - fourth dimension -, densified in space and this in that where both intersect and make visible to the viewer and appreciable from the aesthetic point of view . In the same story different chronotopes can coexist that are articulated and related in the textual plot creating a special atmosphere and a certain effect. In the case of time, it can contain advances (prolepsis) and setbacks (analepsis).
Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin coined the term "Chronotope" while rejecting the Kantian idea that the a priori space and time are inherent in the consciousness of the subject . He agrees with Kant that they are categories (and that without them the world cannot be known), but he considers that they constitute entities whose existence is independent of consciousness. For Bakhtin, the notions of space and time are generated by the materiality of the world, and can even be objectifiable for analysis.
The notion of "chronotope" that Bakhtin extrapolates from physics , expresses the indissoluble nature of space-time , which, conceived in connection with movement and matter, are configured as its properties, and, thus, time can be a coordinate spatial: the fourth dimension of space.
From this perspective, Bakhtin, in "The forms of time and the chronotope in the novel ", defines the chronotope as the essential connection of temporal and spatial relationships artistically assimilated in literature.
see also: Carnivalesque explained simply
