A short essay. Representability of Time. Literature & Language Essay

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Representability of Time
Introduction
Representability of Time, an article by Mary Anne Doane, presents various elements of time from its representation to rationalization. The article also highlights several factors that influenced time representability and several key figures who have played significant roles in realizing rationalization and synchronization of time. Doane's article also shows the connection between time and money by providing insights on the quantification of time spend on something that is reciprocated into monetary value. This paper shall critically discuss some of the arguments put across by Doane in her article and determine how they signify representability and rationalization of time.
Roles of Cinematic and Photographic technologies in Representability of Time
In her effort to highlight how cinematic and photographic technologies shaped the representability of time, Doane uses the story of a protagonist engraved in a placeless place with a kinetoscope showing both the past and future occurrences. With this story, Doane shows how the kinetoscope, an ancient tool used in cinema, captures, and stores records of occurrences at different times. For instance, through kinetoscope, the protagonist can revisit time before his or her existence and anticipate the future. It is equally important to note that the story does not insinuate the protagonist's death. The lack of death insinuation of the protagonist in the story represents the immortal aspect of time (Doane, p. 3). Therefore, Doane succeeds in highlighting how photographic technology protects time from decaying, even if it only presents virtual occurrences of time and not real time occurrences.
Standardization of time
One question that is likely to leave most people puzzled in the world today regarding time is how its standardization was achieved. This is because different people had different forms of time representation. For instance, in the late 1880s, local times in different places in England varied by some minutes. To rectify the variations, Doane, in her article, explains that industrialization played a key role. The railroads had begun operating during this time in England, and to avoid schedule confusion resulting from the existence of different timings in the country, standardized time was established (Doane, p. 5). The resulting existence was that railroad timings became the comprehensive representation of time in most countries in Europe. In England, for instance, railroad time was used as the standard time from 1880 before Germany could follow suit in 1893.
Representation of effectively utilized time
Doane also provides insights into the representation of sufficient and efficiently utilized time. According to the article, a machine recording workers' time in and out of work was invented in 1890. This invention suggested that people had begun to be obsessed with time management and wanted to eradicate time wastage. Therefore, Doane uses the Taylorization example to explain how the representation of time efficiency was achieved. Taylorization is a scientific time management technique developed by Fredrick W. Taylor. The technique is used in...