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IWW Practice-W Exercise Archives
Exercise: Creative Anachronism

These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writers Workshop(http://www.internetwritingworkshop.org/).

Prepared by: Norman Cooper
Posted on: 25 March 2012
Reposted on: 17 March 2019
Reposted on: 15 November 2020

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Write a scene, in 400 words or less, where some part of the scene
is inappropriate for the time period. You might focus on an event that
occurs before or after the actual timeline. Or you might
include / reference a person who couldn't possibly be in that scene,
given the setting. Or perhaps you might simply include an item created
many years into the future. Along the same lines, a character might use
an expression that would be coined many years later

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There are many examples of anachronism in literature where time and
events don’t agree. Whether an error or intentional device,
anachronism plays a part in many of our favorite stories.
For instance: Hank Morgan, after receiving a blow to the head in 19th century
Hartford, Connecticut, awakens to find himself in medieval England
during the time of the legendary King Arthur in Mark Twain’s A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. T.H. White also uses
anachronism in another Arthurian tale in his 1958 novel The Once and
Future King. In this retelling of the legend, Merlyn lives backwards
through time, and because of this makes many references that are not
in the correct time period, namely a reference about Hitler and the
presence of the Encyclopedia Britannica in Merlyn's house.

In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare makes reference to a clock that didn’t
exist in 44 AD. In Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark attends the
University of Halle-Wittenberg, which was established in 1502 AD, but
the play was set sometime between the 7th and 13th century. Also, the
rapiers (straight swords) that Hamlet and Laertes used in their duel
didn’t exist until early in the 16th century and Cleopatra played
billiards in Antony and Cleopatra about 1,500 years before the game
was invented.

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In your critiques, let the author know how well the anachronism was applied.


Web site created by Rhéal Nadeau and the administrators of the Internet Writing Workshop.
Modified by Gayle Surrette.