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Time travel
Time travel

Time travel is the concept of moving between different moments in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space, either sending objects backwards in time to a moment before the present, or sending objects forward from the present to the future without the need to experience the intervening period ....
 is a common theme in science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 and is depicted in a variety of media.

travel can form the central theme of a book, or it can be simply a plot device. Time travel in fiction can ignore the possible effects of the time-traveler's actions, as in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an 1889 in literature novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The work is a very early example of time travel in literature, anticipating by six years H....
, or it can use one resolution or another of the Grandfather paradox
Grandfather paradox

The grandfather paradox is a proposed physical paradox of time travel, first described by the science fiction writer Ren? Barjavel in his 1943 book Le Voyageur Imprudent ....
.

ough The Time Machine
The Time Machine

The Time Machine is a novella by H. G. Wells, first published in 1895 and later directly adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations....
 by H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells , known by his pen name H. G. Wells, was an England author, best known for his work in the science fiction genre. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction"....
 was instrumental in causing the idea of time travel to enter the public imagination, non-technological forms of time travel had appeared in a number of earlier stories, and some even earlier stories featured elements suggestive of time travel, but remain somewhat ambiguous.

Time travel in science fiction versus fantasy
Stories that involve time travel devices and technologies that take people backwards and forwards in time and space are considered part of the science fiction genre, whereas stories that involve time travel through supernatural, magical, or unexplained means are considered part of the fantasy genre.

The genre of science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 is often characterized by incorporating technology either as “a driving force of the story, or merely the setting for drama.” Therefore, it is this key component—technology—that can be used to distinguish between time travel of the science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 and fantasy
Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of Plot , Theme , and/or Setting . Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of technological and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three ....
 realms.

Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov , was a Russian-born United States author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books....
, when asked to explain the difference between science fiction and fantasy, once explained that science fiction, given its grounding in science, is possible; fantasy, which has no grounding in reality, is not.”

Any story involving time travel may be considered to include an element of science fiction.






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Encyclopedia


Time travel
Time travel

Time travel is the concept of moving between different moments in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space, either sending objects backwards in time to a moment before the present, or sending objects forward from the present to the future without the need to experience the intervening period ....
 is a common theme in science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 and is depicted in a variety of media.

Literature

Time travel can form the central theme of a book, or it can be simply a plot device. Time travel in fiction can ignore the possible effects of the time-traveler's actions, as in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an 1889 in literature novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The work is a very early example of time travel in literature, anticipating by six years H....
, or it can use one resolution or another of the Grandfather paradox
Grandfather paradox

The grandfather paradox is a proposed physical paradox of time travel, first described by the science fiction writer Ren? Barjavel in his 1943 book Le Voyageur Imprudent ....
.

Early stories featuring time travel without time machines

Although The Time Machine
The Time Machine

The Time Machine is a novella by H. G. Wells, first published in 1895 and later directly adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations....
 by H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells , known by his pen name H. G. Wells, was an England author, best known for his work in the science fiction genre. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction"....
 was instrumental in causing the idea of time travel to enter the public imagination, non-technological forms of time travel had appeared in a number of earlier stories, and some even earlier stories featured elements suggestive of time travel, but remain somewhat ambiguous.
  • Memoirs of the Twentieth Century (1733) by Samuel Madden
    Samuel Madden

    Samuel Madden was an Ireland author. His works include Themistocles; The Lover of His Country, Reflections and Resolutions Proper for the Gentlemen of Ireland, and Memoirs of the Twentieth Century....
     is mainly a series of letters from English ambassadors in various countries to the British "Lord High Treasurer", along with a few replies from the British foreign office, all purportedly written in 1997 and 1998 and describing the conditions of that era. However, the framing story is that these letters were actual documents given to the narrator by his guardian angel
    Guardian angel (spirit)

    A guardian angel is an angel assigned to protect and guide a particular person. The concept of tutelary angels and their hierarchy was extensively developed in Christianity in the 5th century by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite....
     one night in 1728; for this reason, Paul Alkon suggests in his book Origins of Futuristic Fiction that "the first time-traveler in English literature is a guardian angel who returns with state documents from 1998 to the year 1728", although the book does not explicitly show how the angel obtained these documents. Alkon later qualifies this by writing "It would be stretching our generosity to praise Madden for being the first to show a traveler arriving from the future", but also says that Madden "deserves recognition as the first to toy with the rich idea of time-travel in the form of an artifact sent backwards from the future to be discovered in the present."
  • In the play Anno 7603
    Anno 7603

    Anno 7603 is a play in six acts, written by the Dano-Norwegian poet Johan Herman Wessel in 1781.The two main characters - Leander and Julie - is being moved to the future by a good fairy....
    , written by the Dano-Norwegian poet Johan Herman Wessel
    Johan Herman Wessel

    Johan Herman Wessel was a well known poet in Norway and Denmark literature . Some of his satirical poems are still popular. The traditional restaurant Wesselstuen in Bergen, Norway contains many of his works as decorations....
     in 1781, the two main characters are moved to the future (AD 7603) by a good fairy.
  • In the science fiction anthology Far Boundaries (1951), the editor August Derleth identifies the short story "Missing One's Coach: An Anachronism", written for the Dublin Literary Magazine by an anonymous
    Anonymity

    Anonymity is derived from the Greek word a??????a, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, the term typically refers to a person, and often means that the Identity , or personally identifiable information of that person is not known....
     author in 1838, as a very early time travel story. In this story, the narrator is waiting under a tree to be picked up by a coach
    Coach (vehicle)

    In British English and Australian English, the term coach is used to refer to a large motor vehicle for conveying passengers. To differentiate from other types of bus, a coach has a luggage hold separate from the passenger cabin....
     which will take him out of Newcastle
    Newcastle upon Tyne

    Newcastle upon Tyne is a City status in the United Kingdom and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Situated on the north bank of the River Tyne, the city developed from a Roman Empire settlement called Pons Aelius, though it owes its name to the Newcastle Castle built in 1080, by Robert Curthose, the eldest son of...
    , when he suddenly finds himself transported back over a thousand years, where he encounters the Venerable Bede
    Bede

    Bede , , was a monasticism at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria....
     in a monastery
    Monastery

    Monastery , a term derived from the Greek language word ???ast?????, neut. of ???ast????? - monasterios denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of Monk, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in Cenobium or alone ....
    , and gives him somewhat ironic explanations of the developments of the coming centuries. It is never entirely clear whether these events actually occurred or were merely a dream.
  • The book Paris avant les hommes (Paris before Men) by the French botanist and geologist Pierre Boiterd, published posthumously in 1861, in which the main character is transported to various prehistoric settings by the magic of a "lame demon", and is able to actively interact with prehistoric life.
  • The short story "", written by editor Edward Page Mitchell
    Edward Page Mitchell

    Edward Page Mitchell was an American editorial and short story writer for the New York Sun, a daily newspaper. He became that newspaper's editor in 1875, succeeding Charles Anderson Dana....
     appeared in the New York Sun
    New York Sun (historical)

    The Sun was a New York newspaper that was published from 1833 until 1950. It was considered a serious paper, like the city's two more successful broadsheets, the New York Times and New York Herald Tribune....
     in 1881, another early example of time travel in fiction.
  • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
    A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

    A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an 1889 in literature novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The work is a very early example of time travel in literature, anticipating by six years H....
     (1889) by Mark Twain
    Mark Twain

    Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an United Statesmerican author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer....
    .
  • Tourmalin's Time Cheques (1891) by Thomas Anstey Guthrie
    Thomas Anstey Guthrie

    Thomas Anstey Guthrie , was an English novelist and journalist, who wrote his comic novels under the pseudonym F. Anstey.He was born in Kensington, London, to Augusta Amherst Austen and Thomas Anstey Guthrie....
     (written under the pseudonym
    Pseudonym

    A pseudonym, , is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name. In some cases, pseudonyms are adopted because it is part of a cultural or organizational tradition, as in the case of Religious names used by members of some religious orders and "cadre names" used by Communist party leaders such as Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin....
     F. Anstey) was the first story to play with the paradoxes that time travel could cause.
  • Golf in the Year 2000
    Golf in the Year 2000

    Golf in the year 2000, or, What we are coming to is a novel by J. McCullough about golf which also may be classed as a specimen of Victorian era science fiction....
     (1892) by J. McCullough
    J. McCullough

    J. McCullough was a Scottish people author and avid golfer of the late 19th century. His fame rests on two books, Golf in the Year 2000, or, What we are coming to and Golf: Containing Practical Hints, with Rules of the Game ....
     tells the story of an Englishman who fell asleep in 1892 and awakens in the year 2000. The focus of the book is how the game of golf would have changed by then, but many social and technological themes are also discussed along the way, including a device similar to television
    Television

    Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
     and women's equality
    Social equality

    Social equality is a society state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in a certain respect....
    .


Time traveling themes and ideological function


A number of themes tend to recur in science fiction time-travel stories, often with enough variation to make them interesting.
  • Taking technology to the past In these stories a visitor to the past changes history using knowledge from their own time, either for evil or good, or sometimes accidentally. Examples of this genre include the classic Lest Darkness Fall
    Lest Darkness Fall

    Lest Darkness Fall is an alternate history science fiction novel written in 1939 by author L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published as a short story in Unknown #10, December 1939....
     by L. Sprague de Camp
    L. Sprague de Camp

    Lyon Sprague de Camp, was an USA science fiction authors and fantasy authors and biographer. In a writing career spanning sixty years he wrote over one hundred books, including novels and notable works of nonfiction, such as biographies of other important fantasy authors....
    .
  • The Guardians of Time In this genre a group of people are charged with ensuring that time turns out 'properly' (or protecting it from changes by other travellers). This includes Hugo winner The Big Time
    The Big Time

    The Big Time is a short science fiction novel by Fritz Leiber. It won the Hugo Award in 1958.The Big Time is a vast, cosmic back story, hidden behind a claustrophobic front story with only a few characters....
     and the other Change War stories by Fritz Leiber
    Fritz Leiber

    Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. was an influential United States writer of fantasy fiction, horror fiction and science fiction. He was also an expert chess player and a champion fencing ....
    , Terry Pratchett
    Terry Pratchett

    Sir Terence David John Pratchett, Officer of the Order of the British Empire is an England novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre....
    's humorous Thief of Time
    Thief of Time

    Thief of Time is the 26th Discworld novel written by Terry Pratchett....
    , and Simon Hawke
    Simon Hawke

    Simon Hawke is an United States author of mainly science fiction and fantasy novels. He was born Nicholas Valentin Yermakov, but began writing as Simon Hawke in 1984 and later changed his legal name to Hawke....
    's TimeWars
    TimeWars

    TimeWars is a series of 12 Science Fiction paperback books created and written by author Simon Hawke beginning in 1984. The story involves the adventures of an organisation tasked with protecting history from being changed by time travellers....
     series. Another good example of this concept is the popular sci-fi series Doctor Who
    Doctor Who

    Doctor Who is a British Science fiction on television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien Time travel known as "Doctor " who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box....
    .
  • Unintentional change or fulfillment. In these stories a time traveller intends to observe past events, but discovers that he or she has unintentionally either prevented or created the events. Behold the Man
    Behold the Man

    Behold the Man is a science fiction novel by Michael Moorcock. It originally appeared as a novella in a 1966 issue of New Worlds ; later, Moorcock produced an expanded version which was first published in 1969 by Allison & Busby.....
     is an example of this kind.

Time travel as a defining characteristic of science fiction



Time travel in science fiction versus fantasy


Stories that involve time travel devices and technologies that take people backwards and forwards in time and space are considered part of the science fiction genre, whereas stories that involve time travel through supernatural, magical, or unexplained means are considered part of the fantasy genre.

The genre of science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 is often characterized by incorporating technology either as “a driving force of the story, or merely the setting for drama.” Therefore, it is this key component—technology—that can be used to distinguish between time travel of the science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 and fantasy
Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of Plot , Theme , and/or Setting . Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of technological and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three ....
 realms.

Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov , was a Russian-born United States author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books....
, when asked to explain the difference between science fiction and fantasy, once explained that science fiction, given its grounding in science, is possible; fantasy, which has no grounding in reality, is not.”

Any story involving time travel may be considered to include an element of science fiction. However, novels and short stories from the science fiction genre usually feature time travel via technology (a 'time machine') rather than time travel by supernatural means, and often play with the possibility of time paradoxes
Physical paradox

A physical paradox is an apparent contradiction in physics of the universe. While many physical paradoxes have accepted resolutions, others defy resolution and may indicate flaws in scientific theory....
 such as the grandfather paradox
Grandfather paradox

The grandfather paradox is a proposed physical paradox of time travel, first described by the science fiction writer Ren? Barjavel in his 1943 book Le Voyageur Imprudent ....
.

See also

  • Time travel in science fiction
  • List of time travel science fiction literature
    List of time travel science fiction

    Time travel is a common and important element of science fiction, depicted in a variety of media....
  • List of time travel science fiction films
    List of time travel science fiction

    Time travel is a common and important element of science fiction, depicted in a variety of media....
  • List of time travel in science fiction television
    List of time travel science fiction

    Time travel is a common and important element of science fiction, depicted in a variety of media....
  • List of games containing time travel
    List of games containing time travel

    Many games contain time-travel elements....
  • List of fictional characters who can manipulate time
    List of fictional characters who can manipulate time

    This list encompasses fictional characters with the supernatural, paranormal or superhuman ability to manipulate or freely move through time.For this list Media refers to where the character was first created for....
  • Ontological paradox
    Ontological paradox

    An ontological paradox is a physical paradox of time travel that questions the existence and creation of information and objects that travel in time....
  • Grandfather paradox
    Grandfather paradox

    The grandfather paradox is a proposed physical paradox of time travel, first described by the science fiction writer Ren? Barjavel in his 1943 book Le Voyageur Imprudent ....
  • Predestination paradox
    Predestination paradox

    A predestination paradox, also called either a causal loop, or a causality loop and either a closed loop or Closed timelike curve, is a physical paradox of time travel that is often used as a convention in science fiction....
  • Time viewer
    Time viewer

    The Time viewer is a fictional device occasionally used in science fiction. It is usually a device which functions along the same lines as a television, except that the picture depicts events in another time, either the past or the future....

External links

  • - over 700 movies and television programs featuring time travel
  • - list of over 2400 books featuring time travel
  • Aparta Krystian. A master's thesis exploring conceptual blending
    Conceptual blending

    Conceptual Blending is a general theory of cognition. According to this theory, elements and vital relations from diverse scenarios are "blended" in a subconscious process known as Conceptual Blending, which is assumed to be ubiquitous to everyday thought and language....
     in time travel.
  • - Exploring the themes of Time Travel and Alternate Universes in Literature and Entertainment
  • - Reviewing books, movies and computer games that deal with concept of Time Travel
  • - Reviews and clips of the some more influential movies involving time travel.