Temporalities by Russell West-Pavlov

Temporalities by Russell West-Pavlov

Temporalities presents a concise critical introduction to the treatment of time throughout literature. Time and its passage represent one of the oldest and most complex philosophical subjects in art of all forms, and Russell West-Pavlov explains and interrogates the most important theories of temporality across a range of disciplines.

The author explores temporality's relationship with a diverse range of related concepts, including:

• historiography
• psychology
• gender
• economics
• postmodernism
• postcolonialism

Russell West-Pavlov examines time as a crucial part of the critical theories of Newton, Freud, Ricoeur, Benjamin, and explores the treatment of time in a broad range of texts, ranging from the writings of St. Augustine and Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, to Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

This comprehensive and accessible guide establishes temporality as an essential theme within literary and cultural studies today.

‘There is nothing that really brings it [the critical material] all together in a student introduction though, and I think that is an important opportunity for Routledge’ – Professor Mark Currie, Queen Mary, University of London, UK

‘I don’t know of a single book accessible to undergraduates on the topic.’ - Professor Kathleen Davis, University of Rhode Island, USA

‘As far as I know, there is no comparable book. Relevant books on the market are usually more specifically devoted to one of the various aspects of temporality pulled together here, and are either more specifically academic/theoretical or more clearly "general interest". Also, the chapters on "Gender" and "Postcolonialism" in relation to time make this book quite unique.’ - Dr Christof Schöch, University of Kassel, Germany

Russell West-Pavlov is Professor of English at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.