Narrative & Time
Prolepsis
Anticipating a future event or responding to an objection before it is raised. In narrative, this includes a flash-forward; in argument, it lets the speaker prepare a response.
"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember…" — García Márquez
Don't confuse it with Analepsis. Analepsis looks backward (flashback); prolepsis looks forward. In rhetoric, procatalepsis is the objection-answering subtype.
Examples
That morning he bought the house. Twenty years later, it would be the place where he died.
The narration states an event later than the current moment in the story.
She waved goodbye, unaware that she would never see him again.
The narrator reveals a future outcome that the character does not yet know.
Often used alongside this device
Explore devices that often appear in the same passages as prolepsis.
Asyndeton 4 Passive Voice 3 Hyperbole 3 In Medias Res 3
The rest of the family
In Medias Res Analepsis Foreshadowing Free Indirect Discourse Stream of Consciousness Stichomythia