Time and Tide Again. Traces, Permeable Spaces and Sensory Perceptions of the Beach in Theodor Storm’s Aquis submersus and HBO’s Big Little Lies
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Roxanne Phillips
Abstract
This article traces the acoustic and the visual dimensions of beachscapes in Theodor Storm’s Aquis submersus and HBO’s Big Little Lies in order to reveal how the beach is narrated as a space that imprints itself on memory through recurring sensory perceptions. Both the novella and the miniseries construct their narratives around the beach as an acoustic, spatial and temporal aesthetic. To that end, they employ the tides as a figuration of time that collapses the boundary between past and present by merging sound and movement: While Aquis submersus translates the back-and-forth dynamic of the tides and thus of time into boundless rhythmic language, in Big Little Lies the repetitive and inherently traumatic structure of the waves unfolds in recurring visual and acoustic ‘traces’ of the past, in crosscutting and in a spectacular final montage sequence. [This article discusses representations of violence and rape.]
Abstract
This article traces the acoustic and the visual dimensions of beachscapes in Theodor Storm’s Aquis submersus and HBO’s Big Little Lies in order to reveal how the beach is narrated as a space that imprints itself on memory through recurring sensory perceptions. Both the novella and the miniseries construct their narratives around the beach as an acoustic, spatial and temporal aesthetic. To that end, they employ the tides as a figuration of time that collapses the boundary between past and present by merging sound and movement: While Aquis submersus translates the back-and-forth dynamic of the tides and thus of time into boundless rhythmic language, in Big Little Lies the repetitive and inherently traumatic structure of the waves unfolds in recurring visual and acoustic ‘traces’ of the past, in crosscutting and in a spectacular final montage sequence. [This article discusses representations of violence and rape.]
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Inhalt V
- Acknowledgements IX
- Measuring the Beach: Processes, Practices and Discourses 1
- Gedanken über unsichtbare Inselgruppen 53
-
(Precluded) Arrivals/Departures
- Stranded. The Beach as Ultimate Destination in Joseph Conrad’s Amy Foster and Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice 57
- Dystopie, Utopie, Heterotopie: Die Imagination des Strands in der Literatur von Afropäerinnen 82
- Figuring Senegalese Beaches in Moussa Sène Absa’s Films 100
-
Drawing and Crossing Lines
- Strandbekanntschaften in Georg Forsters Reise um die Welt und das europäische Projekt ‚Zivilisation‘ 123
- Wechselnde Gezeiten: Der Strand als Schauplatz für Wendepunkte in Heldendichtung und höfischer Literatur des Mittelalters 146
- ‘There’s Law on the Beach!’: Law and Order on Los Angeles’s Beaches 1910s–1970s 171
- Always on Duty: Galveston’s African American Beaches and Lifeguards 194
-
Building Structures & Assembling Elements
- Sand, Spuren, Architektur – Zur gebauten Ökologie des Strandes 213
- Strandburgen: Eine deutsche Lust? Zum Strandurlaub seit dem späten neunzehnten Jahrhundert 236
- Der Strand als Schauplatz weltweiter Fauna. Exotische naturalia auf Stranddarstellungen Jan van Kessels d.Ä. 255
- SHORELINES & SPACES 276
-
Bodies in Time: Littoral Rhythms of Death and Desire
- Time and Tide Again. Traces, Permeable Spaces and Sensory Perceptions of the Beach in Theodor Storm’s Aquis submersus and HBO’s Big Little Lies 285
- “Stile balneare.” Singing the Italian Summer by the Seaside (1960s–1980s) 311
- The Boys on the Beach: Andrew Holleran’s Fire Island 337
- Stimmen über der Tiefe, gärender Schlamm, Wasserleichen – Theodor Storms Strände 354
-
Social and Material Transformations
- Sisyphos am Strand: Beachcleaning und die litoralen Figurationen fossiler Energiekultur in der zeitgenössischen Umweltfotografie 387
- The Ephemeral Beachscape: Skateboarding and the Appropriation of Suburban Concrete 414
- Beached. The Awkward Beginnings of Weimar Democracy 427
- Der Strand: What to wear on the beach / Was am Strand anziehen? 448
- Revisited 463
- Notes on Contributors 464
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Inhalt V
- Acknowledgements IX
- Measuring the Beach: Processes, Practices and Discourses 1
- Gedanken über unsichtbare Inselgruppen 53
-
(Precluded) Arrivals/Departures
- Stranded. The Beach as Ultimate Destination in Joseph Conrad’s Amy Foster and Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice 57
- Dystopie, Utopie, Heterotopie: Die Imagination des Strands in der Literatur von Afropäerinnen 82
- Figuring Senegalese Beaches in Moussa Sène Absa’s Films 100
-
Drawing and Crossing Lines
- Strandbekanntschaften in Georg Forsters Reise um die Welt und das europäische Projekt ‚Zivilisation‘ 123
- Wechselnde Gezeiten: Der Strand als Schauplatz für Wendepunkte in Heldendichtung und höfischer Literatur des Mittelalters 146
- ‘There’s Law on the Beach!’: Law and Order on Los Angeles’s Beaches 1910s–1970s 171
- Always on Duty: Galveston’s African American Beaches and Lifeguards 194
-
Building Structures & Assembling Elements
- Sand, Spuren, Architektur – Zur gebauten Ökologie des Strandes 213
- Strandburgen: Eine deutsche Lust? Zum Strandurlaub seit dem späten neunzehnten Jahrhundert 236
- Der Strand als Schauplatz weltweiter Fauna. Exotische naturalia auf Stranddarstellungen Jan van Kessels d.Ä. 255
- SHORELINES & SPACES 276
-
Bodies in Time: Littoral Rhythms of Death and Desire
- Time and Tide Again. Traces, Permeable Spaces and Sensory Perceptions of the Beach in Theodor Storm’s Aquis submersus and HBO’s Big Little Lies 285
- “Stile balneare.” Singing the Italian Summer by the Seaside (1960s–1980s) 311
- The Boys on the Beach: Andrew Holleran’s Fire Island 337
- Stimmen über der Tiefe, gärender Schlamm, Wasserleichen – Theodor Storms Strände 354
-
Social and Material Transformations
- Sisyphos am Strand: Beachcleaning und die litoralen Figurationen fossiler Energiekultur in der zeitgenössischen Umweltfotografie 387
- The Ephemeral Beachscape: Skateboarding and the Appropriation of Suburban Concrete 414
- Beached. The Awkward Beginnings of Weimar Democracy 427
- Der Strand: What to wear on the beach / Was am Strand anziehen? 448
- Revisited 463
- Notes on Contributors 464
