The Dictionary of Fictional Techniques: Telechronance

Telechronance:

the revelation of some small element of a character's future beyond the narrative time of the text. 

Example:

"A moment like this is the closest Kevin has ever come or ever will come to a spiritual experience, when he is perfectly aware of everything around him even as he loses all control."

                                                                             from Next by James Hynes

Discussion:

Telechronance suggests a character's existence outside of the text. Information about a character's future-history outside of the narrative transgresses the mimetic limits of story-telling, since it calls into question the fictiveness and boundedness of the character's being. Telechronance can also indicate that a character will die in the course of the narrative. 

Previous Entries:

The Generalized Categorical

Paracatenation

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