flashforward
- noun
- /ˈflæʃˌfɔːrwərd/
- Literature
:
flashforward
- I never leave these comments, ever, but I loved Ringer; it was the best show since Flashforward, and that one was taken from us as well.
Examples
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Verbal narratives always appeal to a straight linear sequence of events that readers immediately construct for themselves, but, in fact, stories are usually told with flashbacks and flashforwards of events or reactions to them (Goodman).
Academic text (1993) -
In the film, there is an important flashforward that reveals the main character's future struggles.
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His novel Flashforward, which was dramatized as a television series, lets its characters (due to the side effects of a scientific experiment) experience their personal futures.
Academic text (2011) -
"Predestination and free will have come up regularly," says McGrath: "a couple of examples that come to mind include the Dune novels and Robert Sawyer's FlashForward."
Blog text (30) -
By contrast, on the structural level, flashbacks and flashforwards do not bear on the actual logical or temporal relations of the story events, and they constitute artistic devices purposefully employed to produce desirable effects.
Academic text (2005) -
The author uses a flashforward to surprise readers with a glimpse of what lies ahead for the protagonist.
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The director cleverly incorporated a flashforward to hint at events that would unravel later in the story.
Synonyms
1
7.5
A scene in a book or film that jumps ahead to show events in the future
Describing a future event as if it has already happened
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word flashforward combines flash ('sudden bright light' or 'quick event') and forward ('ahead' or 'into the future'), like a camera flash that jumps a story to a later moment. So a flashforward in a film or book is a short, sudden scene showing what will happen later.