tempics means A method of reading narratives in terms of time and the current instant. It carries an Arena rating of 1363, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, tempics ranks #2,614 of 17,150 for Funniest Words, #2,886 of 17,140 for The Improbable, #4,056 of 17,128 for Most Whimsical Words, #5,813 of 17,125 for Most Incisive Words.
Why “tempics” is a great word
A method of literary analysis that interprets narratives by focusing on their temporal structure and the experience of the present moment. Coined in the 1990s by literary scholar Gary Saul Morson, likely as a blend of 'temporal' and 'poetics'. Unlike chronology, which charts the dry sequence of events, or narratology, which broadly maps narrative functions, tempics seeks the specific gravity and texture of narrative time. It is the felt weight of a prolonged afternoon, the elastic dilation of a moment of trauma, or the suspended breath before a long-foreshadowed event—the critic's attempt to understand how literature makes the present feel both fleeting and eternal.
Etymology
Coined by Gary Saul Morson in the 1990s, perhaps from temporal and poetics.
noun
- A method of reading narratives in terms of time and the current instant.
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