Threshold chronotope in Franz Kafka's novel „The Trial"

Abstract

One of the most important signs of the composition of an artistic work is the time-spatial organization of the text. Any story is spread over a definite or indefinite time and space. When creating a work, the author arbitrarily places his narrative in a certain space-time, that is, he creates a certain space where the action takes place in a certain time. When analyzing a novel of the 20th century, it is inevitable to talk about the unity, fusion, chronotope of time and space. This is the most interesting combination of these two aesthetic categories, which is a very important aspect for the composition of this or that work. There are several types of chronotope, however, in the case of the text under consideration, we highlight a chronotope saturated with high emotional-value intensity, which Bakhtin called the threshold chronotope. Its main essence is deep and related to crisis and decisive moment. It is more metaphorical and should be understood as a metaphor for the decisive moment of life, crisis, turning point, radical decisions defining the rest of life, fiasco, resurrection, renewal. Time in this chronotope is very short, here we can only talk about the escape.