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Theme
Genre

Time Travel Fiction

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Time travel is a common theme or trope in science fiction, and possibly other speculative fiction, mainly since the late nineteenth century, depicted across a variety of media including literature, television and film. The genre built around this theme is sometimes called time-travel fiction, chrono fiction, temporal fiction or chrono opera.

Facts
Place of Origin
Time-slip narratives predate the mechanical time travel Wells popularized, an early example being Washington Irving's 1819 story Rip Van Winkle, whose time-travel mechanism is an extraordinarily long sleep. 1
Notable Example
H. G. Wells' 1895 novel The Time Machine popularized the idea of time travel by mechanical means. 1
Defining Trait
Time travel as a recurring theme or trope, mainly in science fiction, depicted across literature, television and film since the late 19th century. 1
Connections

Form Of Genre

In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Time Travel in Fiction (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)
  • lead paragraph, first sentence
    Time travel is a common theme or trope in science fiction and possibly other speculative fiction, mainly since the late 19th century, and has been depicted in a variety of media, such as literature, television, and film.
  • body text on H. G. Wells' The Time Machine
    The concept of time travel by mechanical means was popularized in H. G. Wells' 1895 story, The Time Machine.
  • Mechanisms, Time slip subsection, on Washington Irving's 1819 Rip Van Winkle
    The idea of a time slip has been used in 19th century fantasy, an early example being Washington Irving's 1819 Rip Van Winkle, where the mechanism of time travel is an extraordinarily long sleep.
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