Everyday rhythms: linear and cyclical temporalities in 21st-century British nature diaries
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Abstract
This study investigates the temporalities of the everyday as they are presented in 21st-century British
Nature Diaries. It highlights the everyday as a crucial starting point for the relationships between
humans and more-than-human nature. The analysis follows the assumption that the everyday is
comprised of both linear and cyclical temporalities, which exist in a certain tension with each other.
The linear is defined as the capitalist, including notions of progress, consumption and apocalypse; the
cyclical is defined as the natural, including notions of bodily rhythms, ritual and hope. While
employing these abstract concepts, this study also seeks to detect concrete ways of cultivating
sustainable relationships between humans and more-than-human nature. The format of the diary
offers itself to this study as it reflects the temporalities of the everyday and constitutes a practical
project.
This study focuses on four diaries: Esther Woolfson’s Field Notes from a Hidden City (2013),
Karen Lloyd’s The Blackbird Diaries (2017), Mark Cocker’s A Claxton Diary (2019) and Dara
McAnulty’s Diary of a Young Naturalist (2020). These are examined in a close literary analysis, using
Philippe Lejeune’s framework for analysing diaries as well as theories on temporality by Henri
Lefebvre, Rita Felski and Angelika Krebs.
The analysis revealed a set of common temporal themes in the diaries. On the linear side, they
express critique at the capitalist imperative of progress, while also exhibiting a sense of urgency. On
the cyclical side, they highlight the restorative potential of bodily and more-than-human rhythms. The
authors offer practical everyday examples of alignment with these rhythms, while also situating the
meaning of everyday encounters in evolutionary deep time and the realm of religion, concepts that
transcend individual temporalities. Finally, in addition to emphasising the value of the cyclical, the
diaries also demonstrate the value of pausing in the now.