You might get some more insights into this question about science fiction themes over at r/SciFi and r/PrintSF.

However, as an afficionado of science fiction myself (check out my username!), I can confirm that time travel is a relatively new theme for story-telling. We've had stories about man-made creations (golems/robots) and journeys to other places (the moon, the centre of the earth, undiscovered lands) and bringing life to inanimate objects (golems) for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. But, time travel as an idea really only started in the latter part of the 1800s.

And, the idea of travelling forward in time was more common to begin with than the idea of travelling backward. There were quite a few stories about people who moved into the future - whether by falling asleep (Rip Van Winkle, Honi ha-M'agel), or by other means (Urashima Tarō). However, the first story which involved a person moving back in time was Mark Twain's 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court', published in 1889.

The first protagonist to move through time under their own volition was the unnamed traveller in H.G. Wells' 'The Time Machine'.

(Cadged from an earlier answer of mine.