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In opposition to the linearity of time, we frequently fi nd the notion of cyclic time.
This conception is inspired by the observation of periodical repetitive movements,
such as the seasons or phases (Mainemelis
2002
) and is based on ideas of renewal,
replication, recurrence, repetition and prediction. Although this position is episte-
mologically the complete opposite to that of time's arrow, they both coexist in real
life as complementary modes of temporal experience. Actually, both notions can
overlap in everyday life, are socially constructed and determine the way in which
we as individuals perceive ourselves. In fact, as Freud, James and Bergson have
(essentially) suggested, self-consciousness and time consciousness are two interde-
pendent and inseparable processes that are delineated in the psyche.
However, there is another conception of time, a merely psychological one that
our previous research has referred to and that is relevant to our discussion. The two
previous notions of time are more ideological or philosophical, close to experience
in the interpretative macroscopic sense; they are perhaps more cognitive or intel-
lectual. The following, however, is individual, intimate and profoundly existential.
We are referring to 'timelessness', a psychological experience.
Before examining this consideration of time as a psychological experience, we
should remember that the notions of cyclic and lineal time have been widely
explored by written or audiovisual narratives, whether as the object of the story
(Chatman
1978
; Propp
1968
), or as variations in the discourse, in the ways that the
former are articulated. Since they have been technologically possible, audiovisual
montage and post-production techniques have, moreover, fostered the alteration of
the times of representation of the sequence of events in any narration in the present.
We can go back to what belongs in the story's past (fl ashback) or go into its future
(fl ashforward) to project/imagine what will happen after. We can do this, and we do
this, with our own narratives, regardless of the language of expression. In fact, not
only have numerous audiovisual works widely refl ected on the indefectible passage
of time, but these refl ections are part of our everyday lives, especially during adult-
hood. Meanwhile, the audiovisual industry has also created narratives whose frag-
ments are organised as periods or whose plots are based on the idea of the eternal
beginning. We, likewise, can explain our experiences on the basis of seasons or on
the idea of starting over again. Both the idea of lineal time and the cyclic idea, there-
fore, are not only part of our cultural heritage, but are indefectibly refl ected in our
explaining, telling or narrating.
In the creation and reception of narratives, the three aforementioned views of
time may coexist. A narrator of one's own life can experience the living of timeless-
ness at the very moment of creation or can refl ect on aspects associated to the
notions of lineal or cyclic time. A receptor of that narrative, in turn, can experience
the notion of timelessness when they receive a message that refl ects, or invites them
to think, about the conventional conceptions of time. However, in the following
paragraphs, we will explain that the identifi cation of the experience of timelessness
involves distinguishing, when we speak of time in narratives, between what we live
and what we know. Narrating is what we live, or make live, in the time we know.
