http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anachronism
An anachronism—from the Greek ανά (ana: against, anti-) and χρόνος (chronos: time)—is an error in chronology, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other. The item is often an object, but may be a verbal expression, a technology, a philosophical idea, a musical style, a material, a custom, or anything else so closely associated with a particular period in time that it would be incorrect to place it outside its proper domain.
The intentional use of older, often obsolete cultural artifacts may be regarded as anachronistic. For example, it could be considered anachronistic for a modern-day person to wear a top-hat, write with a quill pen, or use a typewriter. Such choices may reflect an eccentricity, an aesthetic preference, or an ethical preference.
Another sort of parachronism arises when a work based on a particular era's state of knowledge is read within the context of a later era with a different state of knowledge. Many scientific works that rely on theories that have later been discredited have become anachronistic with the removal of those underpinnings, and works of speculative fiction often find their speculation outstripped by real-world technological development.
A prochronism, on the other hand, occurs when an item appears in a temporal context in which it could not yet be present (the object had not yet been developed, the verbal expression had not been coined, the philosophy had not been formulated, the breed of animal had not been developed, the technology had not been created). An example might be Western movies' placing of firearms not introduced until the 1870s, such as the Winchester 1873 rifle or the Colt Single Action Army revolver, into frontier society of antebellum or Civil War years. While prochronisms such as this may not be noticeable to the uninformed, other prochronisms are frankly comic in their effect (e.g., a tenth-century British peasant earnestly explaining his village as an "anarcho-syndicalist commune" in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, or a Beatlesque band called the "Bedbugs" appearing in the American Civil War–era TV comedy F-Troop).
An anachronism can be an artifact which appears out of place archaeologically, geologically, or temporally. It is sometimes called OOPArt, for "out-of-place artifact". Anachronisms usually appear more technologically advanced than is expected for their place and period.
However, a seeming anachronism may reflect our ignorance rather than a genuine chronological anomaly. A popular view of history presents an unfolding of the past in which humanity has a primitive start and progresses toward development of technology. Allegedly anachronistic artifacts demonstrate contradictions to this idea. Some archaeologists believe that seeing these artifacts as anachronisms underestimates the technology and creativity of people at the time.
Anachronism is used especially in works of imagination that rest on a historical basis. Anachronisms may be introduced in many ways, originating, for instance, in disregard of the different modes of life and thought that characterize different periods, or in ignorance of the progress of the arts and sciences and other facts of history. They vary from glaring inconsistencies to scarcely perceptible misrepresentation. It is only since the close of the 18th century that this kind of deviation from historical reality has jarred on a general audience. Anachronisms abound in the works of Raphael and Shakespeare, as well as in those of less celebrated painters and playwrights of earlier times.
In particular, the artists, on the stage and on the canvas, in story and in song, assimilated their characters to their own nationality and their own time. Roman soldiers appear in Renaissance military garb. The Virgin Mary was represented in Italian works with Italian characteristics, and in Flemish works with Flemish ones. Alexander the Great appeared on the French stage in the full costume of Louis XIV of France down to the time of Voltaire; and in England the contemporaries of Joseph Addison found unremarkable (in Pope's words)
- "Cato's long wig, flower'd gown, and lacquer'd chair."
Shakespeare's audience similarly did not ask whether the University of Wittenberg had existed in Hamlet's day, or whether clocks that struck time were available in Julius Caesar's ancient Rome.
However, in many works, such anachronisms are not simply the result of ignorance, which would have been corrected had the artist simply had more historical knowledge. Renaissance painters, for example, were well aware of the differences in costume between ancient times and their own, given the renewed attention to ancient art in their time, but they often chose to depict ancient scenes in contemporary garb. Rather, these anachronisms reflect a difference of emphasis from the 19th and 20th century attention to depicting details of former times as they "actually" were. Artists and writers of earlier times were usually more concerned with other aspects of the composition, and the fact that the events depicted took place long in the past was secondary. Such a large number of differences of detail required by historic realism would have been a distraction. (see Accidental and intentional anachronism below)
Authors sometimes telescope chronology for the sake of making a point. Bolesław Prus does this at several junctures in his 1895 historical novel, Pharaoh, set in the Egypt of 1087–1085 B.C.E. The ancient "Suez Canal," proposed by Prince Hiram (chapter 55),[1] had existed in ancient Egypt's Middle Kingdom, centuries before the period of the novel. Conversely, the remarkably accurate calculation of the earth's circumference by Eratosthenes, and the invention of a steam engine by Heron, both ascribed in chapter 60 to the priest Menes,[2] had historically occurred in Alexandrian Egypt, centuries after the period of the novel.
In recent times, the progress of archaeological research and the more scientific spirit of history have encouraged audiences and artists to view anachronism as an offense or mistake.
Yet modern dramatic productions often rely on anachronism for effect. In particular, directors of Shakespeare's plays may use costumes and props not only of Shakespeare's day or their own, but of any era in between or even those of an imagined future. For instance, the musical Return to the Forbidden Planet crosses The Tempest with popular music to create a science fiction musical.
A celebrated 1960 stage production of Hamlet, starring Richard Burton, was set on a bare New York stage in contemporary rehearsal clothes: the audience could have been watching the rehearsal before the dress rehearsal. The point of the staging was apparently that the story of Hamlet is a universal one that was equally credible in the 20th century as in the 17th.[citation needed]
Other popular adaptations of Shakespeare's plays that relied on anachronisms in props and setting were Titus (1999) and William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996). A similar approach was used in the 2001 film Moulin Rouge!, in which a diverse selection of 20th century music is used over a fin de siècle backdrop. Other films, such as Brazil, A Series of Unfortunate Events, or Richard III may create worlds so full of various conflicting anachronisms as to create a unique stylistic environment that lacks a specific period setting. This use of stylistic anachronism also often appears in children's movies, such as Shrek and Hoodwinked, where it is used for satirical effect. (see Comical anachronism below)
Sometimes a director may use anachronisms to offer a "fresh" angle on an already established story. Thus Andrew Lloyd Webber created two popular musicals, Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which filled traditional biblical stories with modern-day sensibilities; and on a similar note, Catherine Hardwicke's The Nativity Story shows a field of maize-corn in a Nazareth farming scene. Maize-corn is native to Mesoamerica; until the late 15th century it was grown only in the Americas.
Comical anachronism
Comedic works of fiction set in the past may use anachronism for a humorous effect. One of the first major films to use anachronism was Buster Keaton's The Three Ages, which included the invention of Stone Age baseball and modern traffic problems in classical Rome. Mel Brooks' 1974 film Blazing Saddles, set in the Wild West in 1874, contains many blatant anachronisms from the 1970s, including a stylish Gucci costume for the sheriff, an automobile, a scene at Grauman's Chinese Theater, and frequent references to Hedy Lamarr (1913-2000). The cartoon The Flintstones depicts many modern appliances and ideas (such as the automobile) in a prehistoric setting—and depicts a dinosaur as a household pet, which was obviously never the case. The Stone Age is usually dated between 1,000,000 and 5,000 years ago. The Disney movie Aladdin, in particular, featured many brief jokes where the Genie briefly changed into caricatures of many famous people from all across time, including many twentieth-century figures and comedians, for the purpose of quoting lines to make jokes at the film. Series 3 of The Micallef Program included a sketch by the name of 'Billy Anachronism' in which a janitor was sent back to multiple time periods before returning to the 1970s with several items of clothing depicting the places he had been. In The Boondocks episode "The Story of Catcher Freeman" an example of the use of anachronism is the mention of Batman by one of the slaves, as Batman was created in 1939. Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract, set in the eighteenth century, shows pop art on the walls of the manor, and, in the uncut version, showed a character using a cordless phone. The latter scene was removed for issues of audience comprehensibility.
