The Possibility of Qiao-Yiology in Literature: On the Structure of Space and Time in Time-Travel Fiction

As the theory of Qiao-Yi is being improved, it becomes normal to apply Qiao-Yiology in the study of literature. Addressing numerous examples, this paper attempts to connect Qiao-Yiology and literature at a disciplinary level. QiaoYi phenomena in the literary world are diversified and yet connected to the real world. This will help to fulfill the contents of Qiao-Yi, invent a new interpretation of time-travel fiction, and open new avenues for literary criticism. The space-time inverse in time-travel fiction is one unique kind of Qiao-Yi phenomenon. It exists in Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which demonstrates three elements(time, space, and spirit) in space-time inversing Qiao-Yi phenomena and their use for analysing the relationship between the literary world and the real world. The Qiao-Yi phenomenon in the literary world is an important step in understanding literature as a whole, and the theory of Qiao-Yi provides us with the idea of analyzing the real world from material displacement(time and space dimensions being combined into one in the real world) to spiritual change. In the literary world, the temporal dimension can be separated, forming the phenomenon of “temporal change—material displacement(spatial change)—spiritual quality change,” and the implication, interaction, and influence of the two temporal dimensions, as well as the plurality and dissolution of the subjects in them, are the core contents of Qiao-Yiology in literature and related literary-critical methods. The analysis of the spatio-temporal structure in Qiao-Yiology in literature takes the change of time and space as the major premise of the phenomenon of “change,” and the important variable functions of time and space as the core elements of the analysis of the spatio-temporal structure at the level of reality and the phenomenon of Qiao-Yi in the literary world where the spatio-temporal structure is different from reality.