Anachronism consists of a chronological error, when determined concepts, objects, thoughts, customs and events, for example, are used to portray a time different from the one to which they actually belong.
Anachronism is characterized by misalignment and lack of correspondence between the particularities of the different epochs, when factors specific to each time are mistakenly mixed in the same narrative.
For example, it can be said that the description of an automobile in a story that is set during the Middle Ages is an anachronism, since the first automobiles would only be produced in the 19th century.
Anachronisms can happen both in historical accounts, literary narratives and other artistic works, as in paintings, films, theaters, etc., whether based on “real facts” or on fiction.
Although it is an interesting tool in the arts, anachronism is a great challenge for historians and researchers, because it is difficult to understand certain old thoughts and concepts from the point of view of contemporaneity.
When a given historical event is analyzed based on current concepts on a given subject, the researcher is committing an anachronism, as the thoughts and ideas about a specific topic were different in the past than in the days current.
Anachronistic
This is a adjective that qualifies something considered to be obsolete and retrograde for a given time, being directly related to a chronological error, that is, an anachronism.
Among some of the main synonyms for anachronistic, are: old-fashioned, obsolete and archaic.
