Constructing the Temporal Granularity of Narrative Events in Zbigniew Herbert’s Attempt at a Description of the Greek Landscape

Abstract

Narratives are integral to human lives. As a means of communication, they contribute to the formation of individual and collective identity: not only do narratives enable imparting information, but also help establish and maintain social bonds between community members. Regardless of the specific medium used, narratives help humans establish and maintain the realm of intersubjectivity by allowing to renounce the ego-centric, individual perspective and adopt the viewpoint from which the other comprehends the world. Thus, narratives facilitate the emergence of a shared framework of reference, promoting intersubjective temporal and spatial orientation. The paper address the issue of time conceptualisation in narratives. Specifically, the analysis presented in the paper uncovers specific time conceptualisation patters underlying the construction of narrative events in Zbigniew Herbert’s Attempt at a Description of the Greek Landscape..