Time and place take the form of juxtapositions, they are not folded
into a continuous narrative: the piece is written in discontinuous
prose. This discontinuous form emphasises the continuities of
oppression, massacre and totalitarianism between individual eras
and locations.- Floating contexts which are not pinned down or mutually exclusive in
the piece. There is a much less explicit sense of time and place than
in the Atwood novel. - A number of micro-narratives rather than one macro-narrative.
- Mixed genres (the fairytale, the dialogue, the poem, the narrative, the
performance) which emphasise different aspects of these historical and
geographical realities. - Recurring ideas/images which bind the piece together. These work
across normal temporal or spatial connections. Examples are the
images of sewing, journeys and references to the red door. - The interweaving of three closely connected women who never become
fully-fledged characters. - A variety of voices and subject positions which creates different
degrees of distance from, and perspectives on, the story. For
example, the third person narration in the third section which is
lightly satirical, ‘Cass loves the simple things in life’, contrasts with
the first person narration in the holocaust section, which is much
more intense.
This superimposition of times and places is a way of conveying how
similar (and often tragic) ideas and events echo, repeat and transform
themselves in vastly different historical and geographical circumstances.
However separate some of these events may seem, everything is linked to
everything else, and the past continually re-creates itself in the present,
through individual and collective memory.
In a completely different way, Australian novelist and poet John Kinsella
superimposes different times and spaces in his novel Genre. At the begin-
ning of the novel ‘the Renaissance Man’ thinks about all the people who
are inhabiting flats in the block in which he is living. They are in different
spaces, but all co-exist simultaneously within his mind in an associative
monologue:
Example 12.6
The Renaissance Man is writing an essay on an exhibition and thinking
about his latest book on aesthetics. He gets up and washes his hands. His
thoughts are interrupted by the video machine in his head which keeps270 The Writing Experiment