Stuart Sherman - Telling Time

Reading Journal - Session 2 - 25/10/2016

Stuart Sherman – Telling Time (1996)

Using Pepys’s diary as an example (among others) for how diary keeping developed, which influences were important (development of clocks that leads to a more detailed diary keeping, inmstead of focussing on single events; chronological, not occasional) and how different methods can be observed in other diaries that are based on different values and influences

 

• Sherman starts by distinguishing two classical concepts of time "kairos" and "chronos" - what are they? How do the two translate into diary literature?

day to day as single unit vs day to day as mode

• According to Sherman, there are several sources that fed into the development of the diary as a genre and a cultural practice, try to identify them.

time keeping and time writing: clocks to measure time, bell ringing (dialogue btw measure and occasion), texts of the self composed within earshot, astrological almanacs, fiscal account books, diaries (often written by Puritans)

• Diaries navigate between itemizing and narrating according to Sherman. What is the difference?

only selective elements (remarkable occurrences), list of items vs coherent narrative of events with focus on everything of importance, flow of events