ABSTRACT
Chronotope a term originating in science and mathematics is introduced into literary and cultural study by Bakhtin in the long essay 'Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel', which was largely written in 1937-38, but published in Russian only in 1975. The word consists simply of the Greek terms khronos means time and topos meaning space and it is defined, in a manner that is uncharacteristically forthright for Bakhtin, as the intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships that are artistically expressed in literature. Somewhat similar to Bakhtin's earlier disclaimer regarding the metaphorical nature of the term 'polyphony' - a graphic analogy, nothing more - chronotope is borrowed for literary criticism almost as a metaphor; there is, however, a great deal in this not entirely, as chronotope proves to be a more self-contained and self-sufficient category than polyphony.
