Definition of analepsis
plural analepses
\-(ˌ)sēz\
1
Eastern Church
:the feast of Christ's ascension into heaven
2 a
:a literary technique that involves interruption of the chronological sequence of events by interjection of events or scenes of earlier occurrence
- Through analepsis, Paul recounts the story of his uncle's mysterious disappearance and death during the violent days of October 1961 in Paris.
- —Lia Brozgal, French Forum, 22 Mar. 2009
b
:a description of an event or scene from an earlier time that interrupts a chronological narrative :a literary flashback
- … Balzac had criticized the style of the Chartreuse and its too-linear construction, advising the author to eliminate everything that comes before Waterloo and sum it up in an analepsis …
- —Gérard Genette, Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation, 1997
- In the course of the prophetic vision Artabanus also weaves in a brief analepsis, the Persian defeat at Marathon, … thereby countering Mardonius’ falsely optimistic picture of the Greek enemy …
- —Irene De Jong, Texts, Ideas, and the Classics: Scholarship, Theory, and Classical Literature, 2001
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