Time, the City, and the Literary Imagination by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030559618
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

The Magistrate goes on to explain that in Bindura, ‘one only had to cross Chipindura Road from the east or Chipadze Road from the north into the high density suburbs to find the sun fierce and angry’ (Huchu 2015, 18) whereas the sun is ‘wondrous, a joyful gift warmth and light’ (Huchu 2015, 18) in the wealthier low-density suburbs. This indication that even within the same small city, the experience of time and space can differ greatly is one of the reasons I prefer to describe this novel (and others) as translocal rather than transcultural, transnational or global: Huchu here acknowledges and overtly deals with the local-local connections across varying distances and scales. A translocal layering of different suburbs of the same city can yield as many interesting similarities and contrasts as a translocal connection that reaches across national and even continental borders. As Maria Ridda explains: ‘the chronotope dismantles the holistic constructions of the nation to signify a wider space that contains multiple layers of time and extends beyond national borders’ (Ridda 2015, 28).

In creating the routine of a daily long walk, the Magistrate performs a ritual to access these extended layers of time. This process relates to Benjamin’s perception of the urban palimpsest as affecting the flâneur through superposition.3 While opinions differ on whether superposition is initiated by space, by the walker himself or by the text, Gurr’s explanation that ‘superposition refers to both the temporal layering and to the ability to perceive it’ (Gurr 2015, 30) is congruent with the Magistrate’s relationship to the translocal urban palimpsest:He found he could clear his mind when walking. It was as though the act of perambulation was complemented by a mental wandering, so he could be in two, or more, places at the same time. His physical side being tied to geography and the rules of physics, his mental side free to wander far and wide, to traverse though the past, present and future, free from limits, except the scope of his own imagination. (Huchu 2015, p. 13)

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