Troubling Time(s) - Questioning Prevailing Notions of Time in the Study of Literature and Culture

This volume examines how narratives across literature, film, and (museal) art challenge and reshape our understanding of time during crises. The contributors explore temporal disruptions in personal, societal, and environmental contexts, revealing how storytelling can critique dominant temporalities and inspire transformation. The volume begins by revisiting past and future scenarios, from dystopian visions shaping collective futures to narratives reconciling contested histories. Section two examines personal struggles and societal upheavals, highlighting how propaganda, performance, and comedy address moments of crisis. Subsequent chapters explore narrative strategies that review linear notions of time, from exhibitions and novels to travelogues. Sections three and four uncover resilience in crises, reflecting on nostalgia, biodiversity loss, and cultural upheaval as sources of care and creativity. The anthology concludes with focus on the Anthropocene, where speculative fiction, climate narratives, and the ethics of gardening propose cyclical, slowed temporal experiences as alternatives to modernity's linear time. With its interdisciplinary approach, Troubling Time(s) highlights narratives' ability to question prevailing temporalities and reimagine the past, present, and potential future(s). This collection is therefore essential for those interested in cultural studies, narrative theory, and the intersections of time and crisis.


CONTENTS


DEBORAH DE MUIJNCK (JUSTUS LIEBIG UNIVERSITY GIESSEN)
Introduction: The Transformative Power of Literature in Challenging Eras: Time, Trouble, and Hope for the Future 1


I. REVISITING PAST AND FUTURE SCENARIOS: AGENCY AND POLITICAL POWER IN (RE-)CONFIGURATIONS OF TEMPORALITY


ELISABETH HERRMANN (UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK)
Future in Crisis or What Comes after Dystopia 13


MIRIAM THALER (UNIVERSIDAD E CATÓLICA PORTUGUESA, LISBON)
Troubling Remembered Time: Grada Kilomba's O Barco (2021) as Counter-Monument and Ritual Challenging Portuguese Colonial Memory 37


MERYEM CHOUKRI (UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK)
Queer Women of Colour Creating Archives for the Future: "Wir waren, wir sind, wir werden sein ... at home" 51


JUULIA JAULIMO (UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI)
The Confused Conscience: Temporal Paradoxes and Narrating Holocaust in Martin Amis's Time's Arrow (1991) 71


II. NARRATIONS OF PERSONAL STRUGGLE IN TIMES OF CRISIS


GERO VON ROEDERN (UNIVERSITY OF GRAZ)
(Self-)Motivation through Time and Crisis? Reading Letters from 1936 and 1942 85


NATASA MURATOVA (UNIVERSITY OF STOCKHOLM)
The Past Is Present in Bo Burnham's Inside 99


III. PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE CONTEMPORARY NARRATIVE STRATEGIES IN DEALING WITH EXPERIENCES OF T IME DURING TROUBLE


CLARA VERRI (UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI)
'Being-in-Time' or the Other Face of Resonance in Knausgård's and Houellebecq's Novels 115


SANNA-MARI NIEMI (UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI)
Representations of Disrupted and Troubled Times during Mental Health Crisis in Helsinki City Museum's Exhibition Broken - a Shattered Mind (2022) 131


SILVIA CASAZZA (JUSTUS LIEBIG UNIVERSITY GIESSEN)
"Einen Tag lang außer der Zeit": Ambros Adelwarth and the Experience of Time in the Travelogue 149


IV. FORMS OF THE GOOD LIFE IN TIMES OF CRISES AND THE BRIGHT SIDE OF NOSTALGIA


ANNETTE SIMONIS (JUSTUS LIEBIG UNIVERSITY GIESSEN)
Forms of the Good Life in Times of Crisis - The Rise of an Ecological Awareness and the Depiction of Biodiversity Loss in 21st-Century European Narratives 1