Abstract:
The main argument of this article is that narrative, as a verbal manifestation of some iconic aspects of human experience relating to temporality and memory, among others, can only lose its lucidity and even its recognized psychological function of structuring reality, when rendered in the anti-mimetic mode of using the present tense in the entirety of a written text. On phenomenological grounds it is argued that there is a continuity between how human beings experience time and how it is represented in narrative form. Using the conceptual apparatus of classical narratology and linguistics, it is also shown that a normative understanding of narrative requires the use of the past tense as a default. Some examples of contemporary fiction written in a continuous present tense are used to demonstrate the validity of some of the theoretical considerations underlying the main argument.
Keywords:
memory, narrative, narrativity, present-tense narration, temporality
How to cite:
Popova, Yanna. “Against Mimesis: On the Loss of Narrativity in Present Tense Narration.” Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture 10, no. 1 (2026): 46-65. https://doi.org/10.14394/eidos.jpc.2026.0003.
Author:
Yanna Popova
Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Christian Philosophy,
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw
Wóycickiego 1/3, 01-938 Warsaw, Poland
https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5218-5595
y.popova@uksw.edu.pl
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