„Closed Timelike Curves“. Gödel‘s Solution for Einstein‘s Field Equations in the General Theory of Relativity and Bach‘s „The Musical Offering“ as Configuration Models for Narrative Identity Constructions in Richard Powers‘s „The Time of OurSinging“

Heydenreich A (2015)


Publication Language: German

Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes

Publication year: 2015

Publisher: Brill Rodopi

Edited Volumes: Narrated Communities – Narrated Realities. Narration as Cognitive Processing and Cultural Practice

Series: Internationale Forschungen zur allgemeinen und vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft

City/Town: Leiden

Book Volume: 183

Pages Range: 153–173

ISBN: 978-90-04-18292-9

DOI: 10.1163/9789004184121_012

Abstract

R. Powers’ novel The Time of Our Singing situates the problematics of narrative identity on a field of tension between continuity and change and exposes them in a narrative structure that builds on physics and on the artistic constructions of music. Regarding the physics, it is mainly Kurt Gödel’s model of Closed Timelike Curves as a solution to Einstein’s field equations in the theory of general relativity that functions as structural template, as well as the principles of time dilation and space contraction. With respect to music, the procedures of the fugue and the canon that are employed in J. S. Bach’s contrapuntal compositions as well as in The Musical Offering: augmentation and dimi-nution, function as structural references. The goal is to show how the configuration of the novel, inspired by both music and physics, gives rise to identity-constructing ele-ments for a hybrid community. The analytical foils, which serve as a background for the analysis of identity formation in defiance of racial discrimination, are Ricœur’s concept of the narrative identity and Girard’s studies on mimetic desire.

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APA:

Heydenreich, A. (2015). „Closed Timelike Curves“. Gödel‘s Solution for Einstein‘s Field Equations in the General Theory of Relativity and Bach‘s „The Musical Offering“ as Configuration Models for Narrative Identity Constructions in Richard Powers‘s „The Time of OurSinging“. In Hermann Blume, Christoph Leitgeb, Michael Rössner (Hrg.), Narrated Communities – Narrated Realities. Narration as Cognitive Processing and Cultural Practice. (S. 153–173). Leiden: Brill Rodopi.

MLA:

Heydenreich, Aura. "„Closed Timelike Curves“. Gödel‘s Solution for Einstein‘s Field Equations in the General Theory of Relativity and Bach‘s „The Musical Offering“ as Configuration Models for Narrative Identity Constructions in Richard Powers‘s „The Time of OurSinging“." Narrated Communities – Narrated Realities. Narration as Cognitive Processing and Cultural Practice. Hrg. Hermann Blume, Christoph Leitgeb, Michael Rössner, Leiden: Brill Rodopi, 2015. 153–173.

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