American Literature / Unit 2 AML 0114 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Foreshadowing, Flashback, In Medias Res
Captions available
The idea
Foreshadowing plants a hint of what will come. Flashback interrupts the present to show the past. Beginning in medias res drops a reader into the middle of the action and supplies the beginning later. All three break chronology to control what a reader knows when.
In practice
Hint forward, cut back, start in the middle.
Where people slip
Broken chronology is about knowledge, not time.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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