| dc.description.abstract | The experiencing of time in the novel is as subjective a matter as it is in everyday reality. Time
can be seen as a structural element: the way in
which characters handle their reality. Time also
links a character with other characters and with the
space. As narrative the novel also depends on the
realization of the narrator's words in the time of
narration.
The novel works with events which are past and completed and that has a functional value: the reliving of such events leads to the discovery of new
relations between a character and his reality and
opens up new existential possibilities for him. In
the reliving of past and completed events, memory
plays a big role: it is the means through which a
character can realize the past in the present, or
better, to live the past as present. The experiencing of the past as present in the novel is made
possible by the use of the historical present. In
Na'va, for example, the funeral party in honour of
Georgie is relived by the "paltry writer" in an
attempt to determine why Georgie has committed suicide. For this purpose, he uses the historical present.
In Na'va the facts are told from an after-the-event
perspective. The "paltry writer" experiences each
of these accomplished moments so intensely that they
happen here and now: the characters are actors on a
stage in his "house at the sea" (which he regards as
his theatre) and they act the events here and now.
Therefore, I prefer to speak about a "presentist"
perspective in Na'va . The "paltry writer" experiences the already past funeral party in an achronological order of subjective importance.
The characters in Na'va are representatives of the
archetypes from the Collective Unconscious and as
such are timeless. Leroux uses different motifs such
as the motifs of the king, the farmer and the hunter
which stress the cyclical idea. One can discover a
character's philosophy of life from his experience
of time. From the emphasis which the "paltry writer"
places on the moment of experience and the cyclical
idea, one can infer that he has an existentialistic
orientated perspective.
In Na'va one has to do with a psychic space with the
implication that there are no objective indications
of time. The process of individuation through which
the "paltry writer" goes is universal and timeless
and is not at all related to physical space. He
sees his "house at the sea" as his theatre and that
draws attention to the here and the now. Furthermore, the use of dialogue and of the question-and answer
method creates the illusion of real presence
and involvement in the reader's mind.
Leroux uses myths, symbols and the historical present to make the events timeless. And that also
suggests the universality of the events.
The reader becomes an active and creative "co-structurant" of Na'va because there are no objective in=
dications of time and because he himself is expected
to place the events in a certain mythical and
psychological context. | en_US |
