ANALEPSIS: CHARACTERISTICS, TYPES, EXAMPLES - LITERATURE - 2024

The analepsis, also called flashback or deja vu is a narrative device consisting of disruption of the chronological sequence of events for inserting events or scenes previous occurrence. Although analepsis is common in literature, it is also used in television and movies.

It is a sequence in time that moves to the past, recalling an event that has already happened and reinforcing the action narrated in the present. Its functions depend on the dynamics of the story.

Gabriel García Márques used analepsis in his novels and stories

You can, for example, illustrate the past of a character, or retrieve events whose knowledge is necessary to provide internal coherence to the story.

Similarly, you can convey information about the character's background to readers or viewers. This provides insight into the character's motives for making certain decisions in the course of the story.

At its core, analepsis is the story of an internal conflict. Its use provides stimulus for conflict, deepens poignant effects, and allows the reader to sympathize with the character.

In addition, another of its functions within the narrative is to increase tension. The author seeks, by mentioning a past event, that readers want to know the secrets of the story that is told.

Characteristics of analepsis

The main characteristic of analepsis is that it always carries the sequence of the story back in time. The opposite effect is prolepsis (transfer of action to the future).

Generally speaking, this type of time management helps heighten tension, sharpen drama, and build great scenes.

In the case of analepsis, these reversals in time are important because they add complications and depth to the narrative. Also, they can thicken the plots and create dynamic and complex characters.

On the other hand, it can occur as a sudden thought sequence, a hazy dream, or a vivid memory. Also, this can happen without warning in the narrative line.

Types

Analepsis are classified as external, internal, or mixed. The internal ones can be heterodiegetic and homodiegetic. In turn, the latter can be completive, iterative or repetitive.

External

The analepsis is external when its scope goes back to a time before the starting point of the original story. In these cases, the narrative does not interfere with the events of the initial narrative.

Internal

The internal analepsis, unlike the external, places its scope within the same primary narrative. The author begins the narration, and then returns to tell details that he had "forgotten."

Heterodiegetic Analepsis

In these cases, the content of the analepsis is not thematically identified with the moment of action of the original or base story. That is, the narrative content is different from the primary story.

Homodiegetic Analepsis

In homodiegetic internal analepsis, the content of the retrospective narrative coincides with that of the base story. Completives are used to fill gaps in the story whose narration was omitted at the appropriate time, and then retrieved to provide important information.

On the other hand, the iterative ones do not aim to recover a singular event, but refer to events or time segments that are similar to others already contained in the story.

In repetitive homodiegetic internal analepsis , the story explicitly turns on itself and alludes to its own past.

Mixed

Mixed analepsis is one that has its scope at a time prior to the beginning of the main story. In terms of its scope, it covers a period of time that ends within the original story.

Examples

Tuesday nap

In the story "La siesta del Tuesday" by Gabriel García Márquez, the opening seems to follow a chronological order that is later broken by the account of a previous event mentioned in the

middle of the narrative.

In this way, the time sequence of the story is interrupted, allowing the reader to begin to put together the pieces of the story in puzzle form.

Thus, the reader discovers that the poor woman and her daughter, both dressed in black, come to this nameless town to bring flowers to a grave. Only then do readers learn that the son was killed in a robbery attempt.

”The father began to sweat. The girl unbuttoned the strap of her left shoe, took off her heel and leaned it against the buttress. She did the same with the right. Everything had started on Monday of the previous week, at three in the morning and a few blocks from there.

Mrs. Rebeca, a lonely widow who lived in a house full of junk, felt through the noise of the drizzle that someone was trying to force the door to the street from outside ”.

The Autumn of the Patriarch

Gabriel García Márquez's novel The Autumn of the Patriarch belongs to a well-recognized subgenre of Latin American fiction: the novel of the "dictator."

This work begins with the discovery of the dictator's body that carrion birds have already rendered unrecognizable in the dilapidated presidential palace.

The main character in the story has lived for more than a hundred years and his story unfolds in six long and poorly punctuated analepses in which the narrative voices change without warning.

Each section opens with the initial moment of discovery to reveal a few different aspects of the past.

“He has a fever in the canyons, it doesn't work. We never heard that phrase from him again until after the cyclone when he proclaimed a new amnesty for the prisoners and authorized the return of all the exiles except the men of letters… ”.

References

1. Sánchez Navarro, J. (2006). Audiovisual narrative. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.
2. Literary figures. (s / f). Analepsis. Taken from figuraliterarias.org.
3. Literary Devices. (s / f). Flashback Taken from literarydevices.net.
4. López de Abiada, JM and Peñate Rivero, J. (1996). Best Sellers and Literary Quality: Forays into Best Sellers Theories and Practices. Madrid: Editorial Verbum.
5. Pérez Aguilar, RA (2001). Linguistics and Literature Studies. Mexico: UQROO.
6. Literary terms. (s / f). Flashback Taken from literaryterms.net.
7. Bell, M. (1993). Gabriel Garcia Marquez. New York: Macmillan International Higher Education.
8. Bloom, H. (2009). Gabriel Garcia Marquez. New York: Infobase Publishing.