THINKING WITH TIME Time Travel as a Method for Exploring Ideas in The Time Machine, Children of Time, and Hyperion Cantos

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to examine the role that time travel plays in exploring ideas and themes, to study the relationship time travel has to science, and how that might impact its usefulness as a literary tool. This analysis is done through a combination of a narratological framework as defined by Mieke Bal with the ideas of naturalization and cognitive estrangement developed by Simon Spiegel. To achieve this end, the study focuses the analysis on the time travel novels The Time Machine (1895), The Children of Time (2015) and Hyperion Cantos (1989). The study found an extensive variety of methods for using time travel as well as themes explored through time travel. Examples include employing time travel as a lens through which history can be observed by a constant character-bound narrator or as a mechanism to explore themes such as aging and evolution. Moreover, time travel allows for a more realistic presentation of otherwise fantastical, or at the very least speculative, events, by being deeply tied to both science itself and a scientific aesthetic.