International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies (Jun 2018)
Covert Order in the ‘Audrey Niffenegger Set’: Chaos Theory in the Content and Structure of The Time Traveler’s Wife
Abstract
This paper focuses on the subject of N. Katherine Hayles’s complex forms in Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife as a postmodern work. In 2003, Niffenegger published her famous novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife. The novel is a romance and science fiction which tells the love story of Henry DeTamble – a time traveler – and his artist wife, Clare Anne Abshire – who has to deal with his absence and dangerous experiences. Since it is the complexity of Henry’s mind which causes him to time travel unwillingly and appear in different time and places, the main questions of this research are to what extent the complexity of Henry and Clare’s mind leads them to different apprehensions about the world around themselves and how it defines the characteristics of individuals in 21th century. To answer these questions, N. Katherine Hayles’s Chaos theory in literature can be applicable. Hayles believes that complex form (of human mind) is one of the main characteristics of chaotic systems which does not allow the subject to have certainty and authority over his actions and leads to multiple recognitions of an individual’s identity. One of the major findings of this research is that different and apparently unrelated events in man’s life can affect and in some cases change the perspectives of human beings toward the way man used to see the world.
