Flashback

- etymologically means “…a scene in a film, novel, etc. set in a time earlier than the
main story.”
- interrupts the chronological order of the main narrative to take a reader back in time
to the past events in a character's life;
- when scenes or narratives are interpolated in the middle by way of memory or a
reverie or of a confession by one of the characters;
- is extensively used in films
-
Flashback technique is generally used in novel and short story to project the scenes,
episodes occurs before the story begins.

This literary technique is used by the writer in order to better understanding of the plot and
characters with critical insight.
Whether it’s a vivid memory or a dream sequence, a flashback scene (sometimes called an
analepsis) is a window to an earlier occurrence that provides critical information to the
story.

Flash-forward

In the opposite narrative direction, a flash-forward (sometimes called a prolepsis) is a

sneak preview or foreshadowing of future events.