Flashback
Flashback: A scene that interrupts the present action to show events from an earlier time.
A flashback lets a writer withhold the past until the moment it will hurt or explain the most; the order of telling becomes part of the plot.
Flashback examples
"Odysseus spends four books recounting his voyage to the Phaeacians - the epic's famous wanderings are told in flashback."
— The Odyssey, Homer
"Gatsby's Louisville courtship of Daisy arrives in retrospect, narrated years after the fact."
— The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Billy Pilgrim comes 'unstuck in time', so the war arrives in shuffled flashbacks."
— Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
"Nelly Dean's whole narration is one long look backwards at the Heights."
— Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
Spot the Flashback
Score: 0/0A scene that interrupts the present action to show events from an earlier time.
"Odysseus spends four books recounting his voyage to the Phaeacians - the epic's famous wanderings are told in flashback."
Which work is this from?
Explore every literary device in the poetic devices hub.
Flashback: common questions
What is flashback in literature?
A scene that interrupts the present action to show events from an earlier time. A flashback lets a writer withhold the past until the moment it will hurt or explain the most; the order of telling becomes part of the plot.
What is an example of flashback?
A classic example is "Odysseus spends four books recounting his voyage to the Phaeacians - the epic's famous wanderings are told in flashback." (The Odyssey, Homer).
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