History of Time Travel Narratives

History of the Time Travel Narrative



         From the Mahabharata to Doctor Who, the history of the time travel narrative is one of great length and complexity. The idea of being able to see and experience a time different than our own is one humanity has toyed with for thousands of years. Despite this, it was many years until the first full-length books containing time travel narratives were published, and many more until they evolved into what time travel is known to be today. Since then, time travel has become a huge science fiction genre used by innumerable tv shows, movies, and literature in the modern era (see Time Travel in Digital Media ).



Ancient examples of time travel stories

         The idea of time travel is not a new one by any stretch of the imagination. The first myths including characters who can travel through time appeared thousands of years ago in ancient Japanese, Hindu, and Jewish cultures. 1 <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> These myths were frequently used to threaten followers of their religion with an apocalyptic world if they strayed from a heavenly lifestyle. <span style="font-size:9.6px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:super;white-space:pre-wrap;">2

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">One of the most notable examples can be found in the ancient Indian epic poem, <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Mahabharata <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">, in which the King Raivata Kakudmi goes on a quest to meet the god Brahma, and eventually ends up many ages into the future. <span style="font-size:9.6px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:super;white-space:pre-wrap;">4

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<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:bold;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Long 19th Century (1789-1914)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">        <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The first full length fiction novel that included time travel is considered to be <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Memoirs of the Twentieth Century <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">by Samuel Madden written in 1733 which is about an angel that travels to 1728 with letters from 1997 and ‘98. <span style="font-size:9.6px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:super;white-space:pre-wrap;">3

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">In 1843, a more famously known novel, <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">A Christmas Carol <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> was written by Charles Dickens. The main character is shown the past, present, and future by ghosts in order to change his cynical attitude.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">It is argued that the first <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">modern <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> time travel fiction was <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The Time Machine <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">by H. G. Wells written in 1895. In this novel, the defining feature that separates it from earlier time travel fictions is the idea of a legitimate machine that can be built and explained through science rather than a supernatural explanation for the time skip. Also, the other defining feature that makes it more modern is that the story is more focused on the means and method of travel rather than the destination. In other words, the journey was more important than the destination.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The next more famous time travel fiction is <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Looking Backward <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> by Edward Bellamy written in 1887. His story details a man in the 19th century falling into a hypnotic sleep and then wakes up over 100 years later in 2000 in Boston, Massachusetts. The main character details a socialistic like society, his form of a utopia.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">A major theme in long 19th century time travel fiction is utopias. Utopia is derived from Greek that means “a place that is not a place”. Many books describe the “perfect world” and discuss the author’s thoughts of how the world is going to change for the better. Another idea that became popular in this time was the degeneration theory. Many authors hypothesized that humans would become less and less evolved as time went on, playing off the people of this time’s fears of the effeminate and weak.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">One of the transitions that happened during the long 19th century was from utopia to dystopia. <span style="font-size:9.6px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:super;white-space:pre-wrap;">7 <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> For example, <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The Time Machine <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">details a future in which a degenerative process has occurred and the new species that evolved from humans have lost the ability to write and to speak and form complex thoughts and are also hunted by a another species.

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<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:bold;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The Short 20th Century

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:bold;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">        <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:bold;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">In the 20th century, a major change in the traditional time travel narrative occurred. A shift occurred from being more scientific and mathematically driven to being more fantastical and more about the psychological and emotional aspects of the characters. In the 19th century, there was huge emphasis on the method of time travel, however once the 20th century started, it became more about the time period that the protagonist ended up in.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">For an example of this, compare <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The Time Machine <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> by H.G. Wells to Daphne du Maurier’s <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The House on the Strand <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">. The Time Machine focuses very much on the machine by which the Time Traveler ends up in the time he does, whereas The House on the Strand is much more concerned with what the protagonist experiences in the past.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Another new trend in the 20th century was the shift in narratives from metaphors and analogies to more entertainment purposes. Before this time, the future was used as a metaphor for the pitfalls of human beings and how mankind was taking a sharp turn for the worst. However, in this era across genres, authors began to tell a story simply for the purpose of entertainment.

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<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:bold;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Contemporary (1989-present)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:bold;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">        <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:bold;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Time travel is commonly used in present works and not something new or crazily improbable. A famous franchise, <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Harry Potter <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">, used time travel in the third movie, <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">(2004), in which one of the characters uses a time turner in order to save a mythical animal from execution.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">        <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Another famous example is the TV series <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Doctor Who <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">. It was created in 1963 and was eventually discontinued. It was revived in 2005 and since then has acquired a very large fanbase. It depicts a time traveling alien, the Doctor,  in his TARDIS, Time and Relative Dimension in Space, and usually brings along humans as companions. Every several years, the Doctor regenerates and a new actor portrays the character.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">        <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">An example of time travel romance fiction is <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The Time Traveler’s Wife <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">by Audrey Niffenegger written in 2003. The plot is about a man who has a genetic disorder in which he unpredictably travels in time and his wife who has to cope with her husband’s frequent absences. This novel contemplates linear time travel because in 1991, it is the husband’s first meeting of his future wife, but to the wife she has known him her entire life.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">        <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Meet the Robinsons <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">is an example of time travel comedy. It became a movie created by Disney based loosely on the book <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">A Day with Wilbur Robinson <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">by William Joyce. The main character invents a time machine and travels to 2037 where he encounters the thief of his time travel machine. <span style="font-size:9.6px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:super;white-space:pre-wrap;">6

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">        <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Another example is the TV series <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Outlander <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> created in 2014 which details a married nurse from 1945 that is transported to Scotland in 1743. It’s based off of the novels of the same name written by Diana Gabaldon. Its tagline is “What if your future was the past?”, which also contemplates the idea of whether time travel is linear or not, the growing common theme.

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<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:bold;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Historical Context

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">        <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"> <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Historical context means that when an author creates a time travel fiction, they involuntarily or voluntarily write it while incorporating their present time customs. In <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Star Trek <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">, a franchise set in the 23rd century and was created in 1969. Their hair, the cut of their clothes, their idioms, and everything was analog. They had no concept of handheld digital technology, or other technology of that ilk that is commonplace now. These examples really show how the author’s time period is incorporated into the story.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"> ==<span style="font-size:13.333333333333332px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Evolution of the Human Race == <p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:13.333333333333332px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The theory of evolution was formulated by Charles Darwin in the 19th century, and even though it most commonly refers to the evolution of the human species in the past, it is often used in time travel narratives when describing the decline or ascension of humankind in the future, as observed by a character who has traveled through time. An example of using this method in writing would be The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, where the character, the Time Traveller, travels into the future and observes two separate species, which he concludes have evolved from the human species. The Time Traveller is astounded by the fact that the two species have declined in intelligence, unlike he had imagined. The Time Traveller was able to realize and understand how the species had evolved, and Wells makes sure that it makes sense to the readers. However, in other works of time travel fiction, the future human race is seen as superior and much more intelligent and advanced  than the modern human race. The way that the evolution of humans in the future is portrayed in different ways by various authors, and is not restricted to a large decline or ascension.

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