A day’s time: the one-day novel and the temporality of the everyday

Randall, B. (2016) A day’s time: the one-day novel and the temporality of the everyday. New Literary History, 47(4), pp. 591-610. (doi: 10.1353/nlh.2016.0031)

Abstract

This essay presents an investigation of the one-day-ness of the one-day novel—to ask what the effects of this temporal frame, in literary form, might be. I approach this question largely through the developing critical field of everyday life studies, in particular on literature and the everyday. There is a surprising paucity of literary criticism focused specifically on the narrative of the single day, and in this essay I launch further discussions of the form, particularly insofar as instances of the one-day novel can also (paradoxically) be read as novels of the everyday. In particular, I argue the one-day novel offers a model for a narrative that operates at a graspably human scale, having a particular capacity to reveal, attend to, and explore the apparently nonproductive or passive elements of everyday life; and that the form also interrogates on the capacity (or otherwise) for individuals to assert agency therein. Finally, I explore the paradoxical future orientation of the apparently bounded and closed single-day narrative structure.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Randall, Professor Bryony
• Authors: Randall, B.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism; P Language and Literature > PR English literature
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
• Journal Name: New Literary History
• Publisher: John Hopkins University Press
• ISSN: 0028-6087
• ISSN (Online): 1080-661X
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 John Hopkins University Press
• First Published: First published in New Literary History 47(4):591-610
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher