Time Travel in Popular Media (Paperback)

Matthew Jones

ISBN 10: 0786478071 / ISBN 13: 9780786478071

Published by McFarland & Co Inc, Jefferson, NC, 2015

About this Item

Paperback. In recent years numerous films, television series, comic books, graphic novels and video games have featured time travel narratives, with characters jumping backward, forward and laterally through time. No rules govern time travel in these stories. Some characters move by machine, some by magic, others by unexplained means. Sometime travelers can alter the timeline, while others are prevented from causing temporal aberrations. The fluid forms of imagined time travel have fascinated audiences and prompted debate since at least the 19th century. What is behind our fascination with time travel? What does it mean to be out of one's own era? How do different media tell these stories and what does this reveal about the media's relationship to time? This collection of new essays--the first to address time travel across a range of media--answers these questions by locating time travel narratives within their cultural, historical and philosophical contexts. Texts discussed include Doctor Who, The Terminator, The Georgian House, Save the Date, Back to the Future, Inception, Source Code and others. Something has happened to time. In recent years the media have produced numerous films, television series, comic books, graphic novels and videogames that bend, shatter and rebuild the clock. What caused this fascination with time travel? This book explores time travel narratives within their cultural, historical and philosophical contexts. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780786478071

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Time Travel in Popular Media (Paperback)
• Publisher: McFarland & Co Inc, Jefferson, NC
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786478071
• ISBN 13: 9780786478071
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

In recent years numerous films, television series, comic books, graphic novels and video games have featured time travel narratives, with characters jumping backward, forward and laterally through time. No rules govern time travel in these stories. Some characters move by machine, some by magic, others by unexplained means. Sometime travelers can alter the timeline, while others are prevented from causing temporal aberrations. The fluid forms of imagined time travel have fascinated audiences and prompted debate since at least the 19th century.

What is behind our fascination with time travel? What does it mean to be out of one's own era? How do different media tell these stories and what does this reveal about the media's relationship to time? This collection of new essays--the first to address time travel across a range of media--answers these questions by locating time travel narratives within their cultural, historical and philosophical contexts. Texts discussed include Doctor Who, The Terminator, The Georgian House, Save the Date, Back to the Future, Inception, Source Code and others.

About the Authors

Matthew Jones is a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Exeter. He has published widely on genre film and television, and mid-century British cinema-going.

Joan Ormrod is a senior lecturer in the Department of Media at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and co-founder and editor of Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics.