Temporal Aspects of “Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass”
In the unit on dream space we analyze the way in which Bruno Schulz constructs the world of the sanatorium and argue that it is built on principles of dream logic. Equally important for Schulz -- perhaps even more important -- are the temporal aspects of the story – and it is the nature of how he describes time that provides the strongest argument for reading the story as a dream sequence or, better yet, a surreal or hallucinatory experience built upon the logic of a dream world.
Five basic elements describe Schulz’s concept of time in “Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass”: 1) an absence of temporal logic, 2) a blending of past and present, 3) discontinuity of time or time loss, 4) temporal paradox, 5) time as a subjective conception instead of a shared experience.
Key Documents: Philosophy and Time:
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