TEMPORAL DIMENSION: ORDER, DURATION AND FREQUENCY IN MARKUS ZUSAK’S THE BOOK THIEF

This article aims at analyzing the temporal dimension that guides the young-adult novel The Book Thief, by the Australian author Markus Zusak. Written in 2005, this work shows the life of Liesel Meminger, a nine-year old German girl who witnesses the Nazi period in Germany. The story is narrated through the eyes of Death, the soul collector who follows Liesel’s trajectory making comments about her life and about humanity. Consequently, as death is supposed to be a timeless omniscient entity, it is relevant to discuss the representation of time, which is analyzed through the theoretical propositions of Gérard Genette and Mieke Bal, mainly. The focus of this analysis relies on the aspects of order, duration and frequency of the events, since the narrator manipulates time through constant shifts in the chronological order and frequently interrupts the narrative to add his comment, which also affect the temporal dimension in the book.