Deconstructing Peter Ackroyd

[buchwald]

Hello!

It seems that I have to write a paper with the title The Deconstruction of Time in Peter Ackroyd's Plato Papers
Could anyone give me a bit of help in this? At least, some suggestions, where to start and how....

I'd really appreciate your help.

[believin]

Are you deconstructing Ackroyd, or looking at how he deconstructs the notion of time/history?

It's been a while since I've read Ackroyd at all, but The Plato Papers is the first thing that came to mind for me when I read title of the paper.

[buchwald]

I am looking at how he deconstructs the notion of time...

[believin]

I am looking at how he deconstructs the notion of time...

Sorry, the question was originally truncated when I viewed this thread, and I didn't see that The Plato Papers was the only book assigned. I thought maybe you were supposed to look at several of his books.

If I were working on the deconstruction of time in the book, I would start with the notion of how our present day "sacred cows" are treated in the text. From there, I think it raises an obvious question about how we treat the past. In this way, we come to some sort of nonlinear view of time, where all we have are texts interacting with one another.

I think you can look at the nonlinear nature of the book and pursue it in one direction. You can take an approach to intertextuality, and what constitutes a text anyway??, and pursue that it a direction that will have a different focus. There are lots of other possibilities too. You could start with the narrative voice and style of the text, and who is this "Plato" of the title? That will open up some different ways to view the question of time in the book.

As I read the question, time is one thread that is being identified as woven tightly into our cultural consciousness. The novel takes that thread and starts pulling at it, seeing how it will unravel. The concept of history as the novel treats it is a fun one — which makes me think you are going to have a lot of fun on this assignment!

I don't know if you can find a starting point there or not, but could be fun at least.

[buchwald]

thanks believein for the suggestions. I surely will have some fun with this...