Time in Literature: What is Time? (2023)

Just as time is a fundamental element of our existence, it was also inliteratureAlmost since literature exists.

Clearly,all the storieshappen at some point in time. Regardless of how a story deals with time (e.g., chronological development, real-time narration, flashbacks, fade-forwards, random synchronization, etc.), it is still the passage of time that allows the plot, the plot, to unfold. drawing of the characters, etc. . . But what we are talking about here is literature in which time and the passage of time play a role.main topic, and sometimes almost a character in itself.

However, time as a topic in literature is a potentially huge topic and is beyond the scope of this subsection of the site. However, at least some aspects can be described here. The lists of books and works given below are necessarily limited and incomplete, the examples used necessarily being a limited and subjective selection.

time in novels

A literary work can be thought of as spanning four distinct, and possibly quite distinct time periods:author's time(when the work was originally written or published);narrator time(when the narrator of a fiction is telling the story);frame time(if the described action actually takes place); Isreader or audience time(when a reader reads the work or sees it performed). All of these may be relatively close, but they're not: think Walter Scott's novelRob Roy, for example: although we can read it at the beginning of the 21st century^calleCentury, was written and published in 1817, deals with events of action a century earlier (1715) and is narrated by an old man who remembers about 50 years of his youth: four different periods over the course of three hundred years. period of the year.

oExpressionof a particular scene is usually established, or at least implied, early on as part of the details of the shot. This is usually an important factor both in the development of the plot and an additional clue to the background and attitudes of the characters. The indication of time may include specific references to dates or events, or it may be given more subtly through references to clothing, furniture, etc. , could be more relevant. Usually, the passage of time from one scene to another is also given explicitly, either in a chapter break or within a chapter, although there may also be specific literary reasons for making these advances in time less obvious.

The standard storytelling technique involves achronologicallyPlot. Often the period covered is a person's life or part of it, but historical novels such as Edward Rutherfurd'sSarum(1987) miLondon(1997) can span many centuries or even millennia. by Fyodor DostoevskyCrime and Punishment(1866), on the other hand, describes the protagonist's inner thoughts in such detail that the plot unfolds in less time than it takes the average reader to read it.

Monumental by Marcel ProustIn Search of Lost Time(em search for lost time, 1913-27), but he completely ignores the limitations of linear time and constantly mixes the past and the present. Ford Madox Fordthe good soldier(1915), is a good example of the use ofmemoriesmiFlashforwardsin time, though flashbacks and backstories are time-honored techniques, going back at least to HomerOdyssey(approx. 8^ºcenturyAEC). In the fantasy world ofAlice in Wonderland(1865) zthrough the looking glass(1871) Lewis Carroll plays quickly and freely with the passage of time (as evidenced by the Mad Hatter's clock showing months instead of hours) as chronology becomes irrelevant.

Both in the modernist era of the early 1920s^º20th century and postmodernism after World War II, the use oftime Tunnel,fragmentationminonlinear timelinesin novels have become popular tools. Modernist authors include Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, William Faulkner, Franz Kafka, etc.; Postmodernists include Samuel Beckett, William Burroughs, Vladimir Nabokov, Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, etc.

The passage of time is a particularly important theme in the work of Thomas Mann.the magic mountain(1924). In a tuberculosis sanatorium high in the Swiss Alps, time passes unbearably slow for the protagonist, but the more everyday life becomes monthly and once a year, the faster time passes. In the lush tropical setting of Gabriel García Márquez's homeone hundred years of solitude(1967), on the other hand, there is almost no real sense of the passing of time, even as generation after generation of the Buendía family lives and dies throughout history, and time often feels circular and fluid.

oSecretmiromantic politicsGenre: Widely believed to have started with Edgar Allan Poe's short story.The Rue Morgue Murders(1841) and others, and developed by Wilkie Collins'the woman in white(1859) zmoonstone(1868) to the bestsellers of Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler and others, often turns the passage of time upside down. Contrary to the plots ofclassical tragedyWhere fatal mistakes and a character's hubris often lead gradually and inevitably to an awkward ending, detective stories often begin with the awkward event and go back in time to discover the reasons why the present is playing out as it did. it does.

There are other examples of novels that progress (in a way) andgive backpunctual. 1921 short story by F. Scott FitzgeraldThe curious Case of Benjamin Buttonfollows the life of a character born as a 70-year-old man who ages backwards, going from adult to moody teenager, then child, baby, and finally oblivion. Martin Amis'arrow of time(1991) confusingly traces the life of a German doctorreverse chronology, beginning with his retired life in America, then his practice as a doctor, and then "back" to his involvement in the Nazi Holocaust. But here the inverted chronology also leads to an inverted morality, so that beatings heal wounds, stealing becomes donation, etc., and the torture and murder of Jews in Auschwitz by the doctor becomes life creation. and healing of the sick.

Reverse chronology is also used in movies like the 2000s.Storage(in which a series of chronological sequences of black and white scenes are interspersed with color sequences in reverse chronology, "meeting" at the end of the film and creating a common story), and 2002Irreversible(containing 13 harrowing scenes presented in reverse chronological order, concluding with the recurring theme that "time destroys everything").

time for poetry

There are literally thousands of poems about time and only a few can be mentioned here.

The well-known Latin expressionTime flies- literally "time flies" but more commonly translated as "time flies" - generally considered to come from Virgil's long didactic poem,Jorgeothe Georgians(29AEC): „But meanwhile time flies, irreparable time flies while we're surrounded by love(“But meanwhile it flees: time irretrievably flees as we wander, prisoners of our attention to detail.”) But similar feelings appear in theCarmine(The Odin) at about the same time by his fellow Roman poet Horace: “As we speak, envious old age has fled: seize the day(As we speak, the envious time will have fled: Enjoy today).

oThe Bible, of course, contains many references to the period and its effects, perhaps the best known of which is inpreacher 3and it is said of King Solomon: "Everything has its time. And there is a time for every event under heaven: a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to gather what is planted. a time to To kill and a time to heal A time to tear down and a time to build A time to weep and a time to laugh A time to weep and a time to dance A time to throw stones and a time to pick up stones A time to embrace and a time to stop embrace, a time to seek and a time to abandon, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to sew, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace.” .

there william shakespeareSonnet XIX(1609) invitestime personifiednot wreaking his usual havoc on his beloved's face, but swearing that their love will endure through poetry regardless of the effects of time ("However, do your worst, old time: despite your guilt, my love will live forever young in my verse"). Shakespeare's plays are also filled with many poetic references to the effects of time, one of the best known inMacbeth(1606): "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow Creeps in this little rhythm from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lit fools' path to dusty death." The oft-quoted phrase "Time is too slow for those who wait, too fast for those who fear, too long for those who suffer, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity." often misattributed to Shakespeare, it actually comes from the American minister Henry Van Dyke and dates back to 1905.

John Milton wrote many lines condemning the way of the timessteal our youthincluding the poemJust in time(ca. 1630), which begins "Fly away envious time until you have finished your course, call to the lazy hours that advance, whose speed is but the heavy tread of plumb-bobs..." andSonnet XII(1631), who, with "How soon Time, the subtle thief of youth, stole twenty-three years from me on its wing!" begins Alexander Pope wrote a few similar lines about how time steals our youth and all our life withinhorace imitations(1733-8): “Year after year they steal something every day. Ultimately, they steal from ourselves." Edward Young, Pope's near contemporary, added in his poem.night thoughts(1742-5): “The bell rings one o'clock. We do not worry about time, but about its loss: then it is wise in man to give it a tongue." Also around the same time, Jonathan Swift's short poemJust in timecharacterizes time as relentless and gluttonous: "Always eat, never suck, devour all, destroy all, never find a full meal until I finally eat the world."

The passage of time was one of the main concerns of the 20th century.^ºcenturyRomanticPoet.Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, a long poem by Lord Byron written in 1816-18, contains many references to time and the impossibility of defying it, including lines such as: 'Yet time that changes all has in soul and appearance as changed as in face. old age; The years steal the fire of the spirit like the strength of the limbs and the enchanted cup of life, but it shines near the brim', and 'O time! The beautifier of the dead, adornment of perdition, comforter And only healer, when the heart was bleeding - time! the corrector where our judgments err.” Alfred Lord Tennyson poemThe "how" and the "why"contains the lines: "Some say this life is pleasant, others say it is fast: in time there is no present, in eternity there is no future, in eternity there is no past."tithonus(1859) tells the Greek myth of a lover who granted eternal life but without the added benefit of eternal youth, so that he grew horribly old and withered until he begged death for mercy.

The romantic poet Charles Cowden Clarke wrote in his 1875 sonnetOver time: "No! Unfixed the mighty wheel of time, turning and turning with advancing power, star drawing thousands to the dreaded night of an unknown life after death." In his 1862 poem on old age and mortalitythe dead popeOwen Meredith (Lord Lytton) reflects: "However much time we pass, it keeps on passing. Whatever the pastime, it passes. And whether we use it well or badly, one day will be our last." .” Thomas Love Peacock also wrote a poem calledTempo(Date uncertain but from the same period) these include lines like: “Man yields to death; and the highest works of man must yield to time" and "Time is your master: Your riches, your glory, and your name are its own." Poem by Oliver Wendell Holmesour banker(1874) sees time as a miserly banker who never forgets a debt: "Old time, in whose banks we deposit our bills, is a miser who always wants guineas by lumps... We see that time robs us, we know that he deceives us yet they find charm in their agreeable deceptions.”

Time is a major theme in Walt Whitman's 1855 poem.leaves of Grass, in particular the idea that time is a continuous flow and that the past, present and future cannot be considered separate and separate, and also that time is a kind of perfect unity: "A word of faith that never fails Not here or hereafter It doesn't matter to me, I totally accept time, It alone is immaculate, It alone rounds and completes everything, This bewildering mystical wonder alone completes everything.

the loom of time, which begins "Man's life is cast on the loom of time, in a pattern he does not see, while the weavers work and the shuttles fly, until the dawn of eternity," is a much-quoted poem that, despite de la is often used in funerals and its provenance is unknown. Henry Austin Dobson's 1886 poemthe time paradoxit also relies on the idea that time flies forever, while humans come and go in the blink of an eye: “Does time fly, you say? Oh no! Oh, time stands still, come on."

Individual lines of Rabindranath Tagore's poems are often mentioned in connection with poems about time, e.g. "The butterfly does not count the months, but the moments, and it has enough time" byFirefly(1928); "Time is a wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it a mere change and not a wealth" islost birds(1916); and "Let your life dance gently on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf" fromThe gardener(1913); etc But in reality they are poems about love, nature, simplicity, etc.

Robert Service poemIt's later than you think(1921) ends each stanza with the title lines as the poet laments how time irrevocably passes and how he never seems to find time to write his poems. The poem ends with "Ah! the clock is always slow; It's later than you think; Unfortunately later than you think; Much, much later than you think.

Eliot TSfour quatrains(1935) contains a long reflection on thenature of time, including the well-known lines: "The present time and the past time are perhaps both present in the future time, and the future time is contained in the past time. When all time is eternally present, all time is irredeemable." The W.H. Eliot's contemporary Among other things, Auden also wrote several poems on the subject of the passage of time.when i went out one night(1937), which includes the memorable lines: "But all the clocks in the city began to buzz and chime: Oh, don't be fooled by time, you can't conquer time."

To bePuzzleAbout Time aparece en J.R.R. por Tolkienoh hobbit(1937): “This thing devours everything: birds, animals, trees, flowers; It gnaws at iron, bites at steel, grinds hard stones into flour; Kill the king, destroy the city and bring down the high mountain.

immortality in literature

immortality, oeternal life, is another popular subject in fiction, and immortal beings and species abound in the literature of all times and cultures. The oldest example of literature we have, Mesopotamia.the legend of gilgamesh, from 18^ºcenturyAEC, is largely the story of a long and dangerous journey to discover the secret of eternal life. Dealing with immortality in a fictional setting allows a writer to explore and confront humanity's deepest fears about their own lives.mortality, but also to examine to what extent mortality is what defines us as human beings.

Immortality is often seen in literature as a type of immortality.curse. The "struldbrugs" and Jonathan Swift's Novel von 1726Gulliver's TravelsThey are a race of immortals, but they lack the added benefit of eternal youth, having spent most of their endless lives suffering from the ailments of old age and the depressions that come with it. The Story of Mary Shelley, 1833the immortal mortaldepicts a man who becomes immortal after drinking an elixir but, contrary to his hopes and expectations, is doomed to live forever in a twisted existence, helplessly watching as his family and friends grow old and die again and again. In a variant of the Wandering Jew story (a medieval legend in which a Jew who offended Jesus on the way to his crucifixion was cursed to walk the earth until the Second Coming), the ship's captain in Richard's opera Wagner of 1843the flying dutchman(the flying dutchman)he is cursed with immortality and doomed to sail around the Cape of Good Hope forever. In his 1949 short storyThe inmortal, Jorge Luis Borges describes the feeling of boredom and exhaustion that results from centuries of repetition, and the immortal spends his time wandering the world in search of a way to become mortal again. The immortal elves in J.R.R. by TolkienLord of the RingsThey saw human mortality as a gift (even if humans didn't understand or appreciate it), while condemned to millennia of sad experiences. The Lords of Time, long termdoctor whotelevision series, prolong their extended lives through a process of "Regeneration' in which his entire physical appearance changes when mortally wounded or terminally ill, gaining a kind of virtual immortality which the Doctor refers to as 'the curse of the Time Lords'. Decadent Immortals by Michael MoorcockDancers at the end of timeseries (1970s) goes to absurd lengths to keep boredom and the character Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged at bay in Douglas Adams' novelLife, the universe and everything(1982) finds immortality so endlessly boring that he resorts to a plan to personally insult every living thing in the universe, in alphabetical order, to pass the time.

Vampire, and other similar manifestations ofLiving Dead(such as ghosts, ghouls, zombies, werewolves, mummies, etc.) are often considered to be immortal beings. Depending on the variant, they could be technically dead but still retain some aspects of life, or they could be killed through certain dark means, such as a wooden stake through the heart, beheading, sunlight, etc. Derived from European folklore, the vampire dates back to the 18th century in literature.^ºmi 19^ºCentury Romantic writings by Burger, Goethe, Shelley, Byron, Coleridge, et al. In particular, the familiar image of vampires is widely attributed to the story of John Polidori.the Vampire(1819), de James Malcolm Rymersvarney the vampire(1847) and the quintessential Bram Stoker vampire noveldracula(1897). The first vampire movies, likeNosferatu(1922) zdracula(1931), as well as a series of subsequent remakes and derivatives, further cemented these stereotypes. Vampires are now a staple in popular and young adult literature, ever since Anne Rice's hugely popular and influential book.vampire chroniclesfor tastemakers by Stephenie MeyerdarknessSerie.

Other classes of immortal beings in literature and cinema are:Element(like Tolkien'soh hobbitmiLord of the Rings);fairiesmigoblinsin folklore and legend;anjos,Devilmideitiesall art; HEInmortal warriorsAgainmountaineersSerie;robot, organicandroidsand other artificial humans (from the living creations of Hephaestus in ancient Greek myth to the Golem of Judaism).Talmudto the dancing automatons of romance and the monsters of Mary Shelleyfrankensteinto the first robots in Karel Capek's 1921 novelRURand Isaac Asimov's influential robot books for any number of more modern robots and androids); etcetera etcetera

Science fiction- It's incomicmimangoThe genres that have arisen have given rise to an infinity of immortal beings, be they aliensForeignthat are subject to different physical processes, orpeople of the futurewho have developed scientific techniques to indefinitely prolong biological life or to perpetuate it through the use of machinery and technology. Among the many books that could be listed here are:After many summers the swan diesVon Aldous Huxley (1939);immutableby John R. Pierce (1944);eternal lifeby David H. Keller (1947);the masters of timede Wilson Tucker (1947);world without childrenVon Damon Knight (1951);Live for everthe Jack Vance (1956);dioVon Damon Knight (1957);lichen problemsJohn Wyndham (1960);The immortalsJames E. Gunn (1962);way stationvon Clifford D. Simak (1963);Anton York, immortalby Eando Binder (1965);the worm that fliesde Brian W Aldiss (1968);The inmortalvon Alan Harrington (1969);a million tomorrowby Bob Shaw (1970);The book of the deadde Robert Silverberg (1972);enough time for lovethe Robert A. Heinlein (1973);The Eden Cyclevon Raymond Z. Gallun (1974);islandsvon Martha Randall (1976);Dancers at the end of timeMichael Moorcock-Serie (1970er);the golden roomby Pamela Sargent (1982);welcome chaosthe Kate Wilhelm (1983);Sailing to Byzantiumde Robert Silverberg (1985);The ship of a million yearsde Poul Anderson (1989);overtaking the deadby Frederick Pohl (1990); etcetera etcetera

Time travel in literature.

time travel(See the section ontime travellisten)) has been a popular plot device in fiction since at least the 19th century.^ºCentury and one of the most famous of all time travel books.the time Machineby H. G. Wells, published in 1895. But the idea, though less scientifically formulated, goes much further.

moral storiesof characters miraculously transported to foreign lands only to return to their own land many centuries later, or characters awakened from a long sleep decades in the future can be found in IndiaMahabharata(and 700AEC), the jewTalmud(and 300CE) and the JapaneseNihongi(and 720CE). by Samuel Madden20th century memories(1733) assumes a "guardian angel" bringing documents from hundreds of years in the future. Inagain 7603(1761), Norwegian poet Johan Herman Wessel describes a journey into the far future courtesy of a "fairy godmother" and the work of Pierre Boitard.paris in front of men(1861) is about a trip to prehistory under the spell of a "lame demon". Mentioned in an anonymous tale from 1838.Losing the carriage: an anachronism, the narrator is displaced in time by a "temporal layer error" of more than a thousand years. The popular 1843 novel by Charles Dickensa christmas storyshows Ebeneezer Scrooge traveling back and forth in time accompanied by the Spirit of Christmas Past and the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come.

Edward Page Mitchell was one of the early innovators in theScience fictiongenre and its historyThe clock that ran backwards(1881) preceded Wellsthe time Machinefor about 14 years. He also appears a few years earlier.the time Machine,the anachronope(literally "the man who flew against time", usually translated asship in time) by Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau (1887) introduced a technological time machine similar to that of H.G. Wells, complete with illustrations, and Wells himself wrote a short story calledThe Chronic Argonautsin 1888, which is a simple time machine. the potentialparadoxesTime travel was also explored in Thomas Anstey Guthrie's book.Tourmaline Time Controls(1891).

well known victorian socialistutopiasandto look behind(1888, by Edward Bellamy) enews out of nowhere(1890, by William Morris) can be seen as "pseudo" time travel stories, and both revolve around protagonists falling asleep and "awakening" many decades in the future, essentially the same plot used long before by Washington Irving. in his The story was used 1819Rip Van Winkle- just like J. McCullough's visionGolf in the year 2000(1892). Likewise, the protagonist of Mark Twain's satirical novelEin Yankee aus Connecticut in the court of King Arthur(1889) wakes up at 6^ºCentury England after a blow to the head.

But the classic story of time travel remains that of H.G. Wells, and is generally credited with the popular notion of time travel using aphysical machineor vehicle, with levers and dials that allow the operator to deliberately and selectively travel through time.the time MachineIt also spawned a whole subgenre of science fiction time travel stories, most notably Robert A. Heinlein.through your boots(1941) zthe door to summer(1957) miall you zombies(1959) by Isaac Asimovpebbles in the sky(1950) miThe end of the eternity(1956), de Poul Andersontime guard(1961) and the resttime patrolSerie, Robert SilverbergOn the line(1969), by Kurt Vonnegutslaughterhouse five(1969) miearthquake(1996), Michael Moorecocksee the man(1969) miDancers at the end of timeSerie (1970er) de Wilson TuckerThe year of the calm sun(1970), David GerroldThe Man Who Bowed(1973) by John VarleyMillennium(1983), by Michael Crichtontimeline(1999), de Robert J. SawyerFlashforward(1999), Terry Prachettime thief(2001) and Audrey NiffeneggerThe time traveler's wife.(2003), as well as alldoctor whoI work on television (since 1964). There is even a sub-sub genre ofaftermathto Well's original novel, including K.W. jetterMorlock Ritter(1979), by David J. LakeThe man who loved the Morlocks(1980), de Stephen Baxtertime ships(1995), etc and another subgenre of time travelRomanticNovels, such as the voluminous book by Diana GabaldonstrangeSerie.

In some time travel stories, the past is contemplated, and even the future.fixed and immutable, and a time traveler appears as some kind of disembodied spirit, or some unspecified law of nature prevents any changes to the original timeline (such as the supposed "Morphail Effect" in Michael Moorcock's book).Dancers at the end of time1970 series or 1988 soap opera by Connie Willisjudgment bookin which the story defies any time travel that results in the alteration of the past). In others, however, the story isflexible and changeable(For example, the James P. Hogan novels of the 1980s3 timesmiProtection Operation), and even small changes can become catastrophic changes in the future (as in Ray Bradbury's 1952 short story,a sound of thunder). There is a third possibility in the case of several coexistencesalternate histories, so that when a traveler goes back in time, they arrive in a new timeline in an alternate reality where historical events may differ from the original (as in Larry Niven's 1971 short storyAll the countless possibilities, the 1980 romance by Robert A. HeinleinBeast's number, or the 2012 novel by Alan Averillthe beautiful country).