We look at time as a central device in fiction writing: time past, time present, time future, and, occasionally, somewhere outside time. Not only is the choice of the time in which you set your work central to a story but how much time it covers: a work of fiction may begin and end on the same day or cover a life-time in the same number of words. There is also timing itself: how can a writer speed up or slow down a passage in a novel or short story. This is a double course which can only be taken with Pm43.
Course details
Tutors
Throughout history time has often been controlled by the powerful (hence beautiful, priceless, clocks and timepieces). Time is embedded in fiction from Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, C.S. Lewis’ The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to The TimeTraveller’s Wife and time is reframed and redirected by authors Frances Spufford and Kate Atkinson. Time’s tricks are also central to the action in drama, including Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia”, and films such as “Groundhog Day” and ”Clockwise”.
Certain genres, traditional detective fiction in particular, rely upon the manipulation of time to unravel their story. Stories in which two (or more) narratives set in different periods and plaited together are challenging to write but very successful when done well and station clocks and broken watches are almost a literary cliché.
Yet since the emergence of the internet and mobile phones one of central devices of literature has been lost. Are there new challenges, new uses of time or can some of the old misunderstandings, the faulty travel arrangements, the chiming church bell, be used in new ways? Or can worlds beyond time be created?
Learning outcomes
The learning outcomes for this course are:
- To be aware how time is used as a story device or prose effect in existing fiction
- To try out techniques that create pace in a story or poem
- To feel confident in plotting or writing stories that may encompass centuries or cover just a day
Classes
1. A Brief History of Time: how time is threaded into fiction even when we are not aware of it as we read. Different time concepts in different cultures starting with the two-faced Roman God, Janus, the god of gateways who faces both the past and future. Playing with time. Characters who panic in their time obsession, who are always late, who are idle, who sleep for 100 years. A lot can be revealed in how people use time. Are you an owl or a lark? Are you early or late to appointments?
2. Pace: a crucial skill. How to make a narrative race ahead or slow down or build tension or languor or shock. How do writers use language and sentence structure to create compelling variety, mood and a sense of time passing?
3. Frozen Time: Novels of museums, mad collectors, fragments of history, ghosts and taxidermy. Landscapes of time: liminal areas: seashores and tides; marshes; estuaries, forests, industrial wasteland, ancient ruins.
4. Historical fiction: what is the definition of the genre? Why is it so popular? The balance between storytelling and research. How can we make the past live? Can we use real events or real people as a basis for a novel? Alternative history. Authenticity. Time travel: A fascination with time travel has driven both children’s and adult fiction. Why do we enjoy it and what decisions do we make in writing it?
5. Time out: creating fantasies in new and old worlds, stories where time is simply a matter of night and day; eternal life; timeless cities. Making time: Hourglasses, charts, mind- maps, timelines, deadlines. Your own time and how you use it, how you live with it; how you can make the most of it and find space to write.
Required reading
Barrico, Alessandro (trans. Ann Goldstein), Silk. Canongate, 2006
Blakemore, AK, The Manningtree Witches, Granta, 2020
Atkinson, Kate, Life after Life, Penguin Books, 2012
Typical week: Monday to Friday
For each week of study you select a morning (Am) and an afternoon (Pm) course, each course has five sessions, one each day Monday to Friday. The maximum class size is 25 students. Your weekly courses are complemented by a series of two daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to the learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events.
| c.8.00am-9.00am | Breakfast in College (for residents) |
| 9.00am-10.30am | Am Course |
| 11.15am-12.30pm | Plenary Lecture |
| 12.30pm-1.45pm | Lunch |
| 1.45pm-3.15pm | Pm Course |
| 4.00pm-5.15pm | Plenary Lecture |
| c.6.00/6.15pm-7.15/7.30pm | Dinner in College (for residents) |
| c.7.30pm onwards | Evening talk/event |
Evaluation and Academic Credit
If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses.
Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £65 per essay.
For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit.
Certificate of attendance
A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically within a week of your courses finishing.