French Literature Reviews - 2026

T. Collington, Lectures chronotopiques. Espace, temps et genres romanesques
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

COLLINGTON, Tara, Lectures chronotopiques. Espace, temps et genres romanesques, Montréal, XYZ (coll. "Théorie et littérature"), 2006, 264 p.

ISBN: 2-89261-457-0

Publisher's blurb:

Too often, the chronotope is dismissed as a fascinating aberration in the thought of the Russian cultural philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, whereas the introduction of this term into the Bakhtinian lexicon is rooted in a profound reflection on the relationship between space and time across various fields, such as philosophy, literature, and literary hermeneutics.
[...] This study seeks precisely to "situate" the chronotope, to grasp its significance within Bakhtin's thought, to examine its connections to other Bakhtinian concepts, and to understand its role in Bakhtin's conceptualization of the novel. [...] We hope to highlight not only Bakhtin's innovative approach and the complexity of the concept, but also to demonstrate the usefulness of the chronotope as a heuristic tool in literary analysis.

Tara Collington has been teaching 20th-century French literature and literary theory in the Department of French Studies at the University of Waterloo since 2001.
She is the author of several articles focusing on the Russian cultural philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin. Her recent research has led her to explore phenomena of rewriting, transposition, and the adaptation of literature into performing arts such as cinema, theater, and opera.

The concept of the chronotope occupies a position within the theoretical framework developed by the Russian thinker Mikhail Bakhtin. Within the broader tradition of twentieth-century literary hermeneutics, scholars have continually reevaluated how formal structures reflect cultural and philosophical shifts. Tara Collington has been teaching 20th-century French literature and literary theory in the Department of French Studies at the University of Waterloo since 2001 and is the author of several articles focusing on Mikhail Bakhtin.

Readers interested in twentieth-century literary theory, narratology, and the reception of Bakhtinian concepts may find this work relevant to their studies of space and time in narrative prose.