Thursday, March 3, 2011

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. 

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2 comments:

  1. Great one! One person i know can't stand to read Steven King because he does this all the time, mentioning the little kid the main character just waved at will die in a drunk driving accident when he is 48. I don't mind it myself.

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  2. Frazen did this not-stop in Freedom, and I found it completely annoying.

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