What If Time Is a Dimension of Events,Not an Envelope for Them?

Abstract

Any discussion of time must first indicate what kind of time is involved. Most discussions of time simply take for granted a particular kind of time, one which was invented for modern Europe beginning in the Quattrocento and perfected in the nineteenth century, one which has been specific to a particular phase of western culture, and its empiricist tendencies. This kind of time has been broadly challenged since the turn of the twentieth century and across the range of practice from art to physics, and a new kind of time has emerged from these challenges. Just as ‘modern’ time emerged from the Renaissance, so what might be called postmodern or discursive time has emerged from the tectonic cultural shifts of the past century. This essay distinguishes between these two kinds of time as they effect discussion of important topics, for example the topic of gender.