Chronotopes and Topoi

The chronotopic maps present textual places not just in terms of their spatial features, but also in terms of what happens in them. This immediately illuminates the difference between actual and literary places, where one is static the other is dynamic (‘lived’). This dynamism is shown here in the connection between chronotopes; Chertsey, for instance, is a ‘road’, ‘encounter’ and ‘provincial town’. Unusually, though, Twist’s chronotopes are completely connected, unlike others (see The Nether World, for instance) there are no ‘floating’ nodes. This may be a feature of the Bildungsroman: spaces shift in nature along with the developing protagonist. It may also be due to the panoramic quality of Dickens’ novel: the multitude of character subjectivities conceive place differently.