Sound and Rhythm in Literary Space-Time

Narrative space is then no longer the box within which events happen, but becomes instead a literary space-time performed by story-telling. This chapter considers both these dimensions of literary space-time: the space-time of the narrative, and the space-time of the writing-reading event. In TransAtlantic readers encounter and co-produce a literary space-time that is multi-sensory and generated in movement. With its main characters making essentially the same transatlantic voyage, years apart, any attempt to map its narrative space would require a three-dimensional space-time map representing a hemispheric surface and a depth of 150 years. The narrative includes the sounds of the moment and how those sounds are experienced from the airmen&s;s point of audition, but it is also produced by McCann and heard in the extra-textual literary space-time connecting him with his readers in the writing-reading event. Literary space-time resonates with sound and is sprung with rhythm.