Narrative & Time
In Medias Res
Beginning a narrative in the middle of the action. The reader encounters events before receiving the background needed to explain them.
Paradise Lost opening after the fall of the rebel angels, not before.
Don't confuse it with Analepsis. Analepsis (flashback) is how the deferred backstory later arrives; in medias res is the choice of entry point itself.
Examples
The story opens: The rope snapped. Mara caught the ledge with one hand. Only later do we learn why she was climbing the tower.
The opening enters an action already underway and postpones the circumstances that led to it.
Often used alongside this device
Explore devices that often appear in the same passages as in medias res.
Synecdoche 3 Passive Voice 3 Asyndeton 3 Litotes 3 Prolepsis 3 Parenthesis 3
The rest of the family
Prolepsis Analepsis Foreshadowing Free Indirect Discourse Stream of Consciousness Stichomythia