Flashback

Disciplines > Storytelling > Story devices > Flashback

Description | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

Stories normally progress forward in time. The flashback interrupts this flow by temporarily jumping back to an earlier episode, telling something of the back story.

A typical use of the flashback is as a visualisation of a memory that explains the actions the person involved. Phrases such as 'That reminds me of...' and 'Do you remember when...' are followed by flashbacks to the named events.

The narrator's voice may continue over a silent picture or the flashback may run as a separate story segment.

Flashbacks can be over a long period, such as back to childhood, or may simply be of a time snippet within the same day.

Example

Faced with the villain, the hero stares off into the distance and a flashback is used to show the hero as a child, watching the villain slay his family.

As the TV detective pieces together the crime, short flashback scenes are used to show what has been discovered.

Discussion

Evolving from the explanatory aside, the flashback provides a means of connecting events which are separated in time, making sense of what are otherwise disjoint occurrences.

Flashbacks may be used on long-running TV series to help remind the audience of long-past events that are relevant to the current plot.

Playing in time is used in a number of ways in stories and movies. The action can jump back and forth with flashbacks and flash forwards. The story can also take a sense of history and fate with the use of prophecy.

Sometimes the whole story is a told as a flashback, perhaps narrated by an older, wiser person after some harrowing experiences. This story starts with a

Flashback is also called Analepsis.

A Racconto is a form of flashback that is longer and more detailed and does not leap backwards so dramatically.