Chronotopes

Abstract

Dialogical single case studies involve mutually interdependent relations between humans in their real locations and in real time (here-and-now). Mikhail Bakhtin explored such relations in terms of chronotopes, i.e. as indivisible units serving as analytical tools for the study of dynamic processes in literature. We argue that chronotopic thinking also serves as an epistemological and ethical organising principle of human activities in daily thinking, knowing, actions and communication. This article explores different types of chronotopic thinking in dialogical single case studies, such as routines and changes; bildungsromans and heteroglossia; and values, meanings and intensities of these chronotopes in different time-scale situations. Considering ethical and dynamic interdependencies between the participants, this article suggests in what ways knowledge obtained in dialogical single case studies could be transferred (extended, generalised, resituated) to other kinds of studies.