Flashback
Flashback
Moving from events in the present to events in the past, and back to the present in a text or film. Cuddon states that flashback is “used to describe any scene or episode in a play, novel, story or poem which is inserted to show events that happened at an earlier time.” (321). Flashback is also referred to as analepsis or retrospect
One use of flashback is “to fill in background information about characters and events.” (Baldick 9). Flashback helps to connect characters, situation, and events. In some cases, this allows the narrative to make more sense. For example, in Babylon Revisited Fitzgerald uses flashback to explain why Charlie was trying to get his daughter back.