Time Maps: Theory and Method

This article documents the production and analysis of time maps, the graphs which are produced by plotting a narrative’s fabula against its syuzhet. Other researchers have independently studied time maps, and most of them directly adopted Genette’s classic ordering schema, which tracks the sequence of events in the fabula by assigning them a letter. My method creates time maps of unprecedented resolution by numerically tracking each scene’s position and duration in the fabula. This accounts for differences across time scales, which previous work has overlooked. I consider how time maps can advance narrative theory by visualizing nonlinear narration and by highlighting the affordances of different media. I introduce the notion of a “narratological chronotope” to describe the visualizations of Genette’s “canonical movements” and suggest a heuristic typology of narrative temporal cues. I develop these arguments through analyses of Rashomon and Mrs. Dalloway.