Deep Chronotope Map

As is typical of complex, multi-consciousness narratives, especially in comparison to simpler forms such as the ballad, the novel’s deep chronotopic map is fairly dense. Not only does it contain 8 of the possible 12 chronotopes but also these nodes have multiple connections. Unsurprisingly for a novel about contrasts, and concerning the extremes of the human psyche, the key chronotope is the emotionally-charged threshold. In many ways, the novel itself occupies a threshold– between genres, narrators, and forms. Threshold is closely followed by encounter, castle and metanarrative. The high occurrence of metanarrative points to the novel’s form which amalgamates the impersonal third-person narrator with a series of letters, newspaper articles and reported narratives. Its multiple connections show the frequent narrative shifts that leave the reader in semi-ignorance and prolong the mystery.

It is, after all, the ‘strange case’ of Jekyll and Hyde – the encounters (meetings, records, clues, documents) of detective fiction are met by the inexplicable mysteries and castle-like claustrophobic terror of urban gothic fiction.