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In medias res
A narrative work beginning in medias res (Classical Latin: [ɪn ˈmɛdɪ.aːs ˈreːs], lit. "into the middle of things") opens in the chronological middle of the plot, rather than at the beginning (cf. ab ovo, ab initio). Often, exposition is initially bypassed, instead filled in gradually through dialogue, flashbacks, or description of past events. For example, Hamlet begins after the death of Hamlet's father, which is later discovered to have been a murder. Characters make reference to King Hamlet's death without the plot's first establishment of this fact. Since the play is about Hamlet and the revenge more so than the motivation, Shakespeare uses in medias res to bypass superfluous exposition.
Works that employ in medias res often later use flashback and nonlinear narrative for exposition to fill in the backstory. In Homer's Odyssey, the reader first learns about Odysseus's journey when he is held captive on Ogygia, Calypso's island. The reader then finds out, in Books IX through XII, that the greater part of Odysseus's journey precedes that moment in the narrative. In Homer's Iliad there are fewer flashbacks, although it opens in the thick of the Trojan War.
The Roman lyric poet and satirist Horace (65–8 BC) first used the terms ab ovo ("from the egg") and in mediās rēs ("into the middle of things") in his Ars Poetica ("Poetic Arts", c. 13 BC), wherein lines 147–149 describe the ideal epic poet:
Nor does he begin the Trojan War from the egg, but always he hurries to the action, and snatches the listener into the middle of things ...
The word "egg" reference is to the mythological origin of the Trojan War in the birth of Helen and Clytemnestra from the double egg laid by Leda following her seduction by Zeus in the guise of a swan. Compare the Iliad, which begins nine years after the start of the Trojan War, rather than at its beginning.
With likely origins in oral tradition, the narrative technique of beginning a story in medias res is a stylistic convention of epic poetry, the exemplars in Western literature being the Iliad and the Odyssey (both 7th century BC), by Homer. Likewise, the Mahābhārata (c. 8th century BC – c. 4th century AD) opens in medias res.
The classical-era poet Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro, 70–19 BC) continued this literary narrative technique in the Aeneid, which is part of the Roman literary tradition of imitating Homer. Later works starting in medias res include the story "The Three Apples" from the One Thousand and One Nights (c. 9th century), the Italian Divine Comedy (1320) by Dante Alighieri, the German Nibelungenlied (12th century),[citation needed] the Spanish Cantar de Mio Cid (c. 14th century), the Portuguese The Lusiads (1572) by Luís de Camões, Jerusalem Delivered (1581) by Torquato Tasso,[citation needed] Paradise Lost (1667) by John Milton, and generally in Modernist literature.
Modern novelists using in medias res with flashbacks include William Faulkner and Toni Morrison.
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In medias res AI simulator
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In medias res
A narrative work beginning in medias res (Classical Latin: [ɪn ˈmɛdɪ.aːs ˈreːs], lit. "into the middle of things") opens in the chronological middle of the plot, rather than at the beginning (cf. ab ovo, ab initio). Often, exposition is initially bypassed, instead filled in gradually through dialogue, flashbacks, or description of past events. For example, Hamlet begins after the death of Hamlet's father, which is later discovered to have been a murder. Characters make reference to King Hamlet's death without the plot's first establishment of this fact. Since the play is about Hamlet and the revenge more so than the motivation, Shakespeare uses in medias res to bypass superfluous exposition.
Works that employ in medias res often later use flashback and nonlinear narrative for exposition to fill in the backstory. In Homer's Odyssey, the reader first learns about Odysseus's journey when he is held captive on Ogygia, Calypso's island. The reader then finds out, in Books IX through XII, that the greater part of Odysseus's journey precedes that moment in the narrative. In Homer's Iliad there are fewer flashbacks, although it opens in the thick of the Trojan War.
The Roman lyric poet and satirist Horace (65–8 BC) first used the terms ab ovo ("from the egg") and in mediās rēs ("into the middle of things") in his Ars Poetica ("Poetic Arts", c. 13 BC), wherein lines 147–149 describe the ideal epic poet:
Nor does he begin the Trojan War from the egg, but always he hurries to the action, and snatches the listener into the middle of things ...
The word "egg" reference is to the mythological origin of the Trojan War in the birth of Helen and Clytemnestra from the double egg laid by Leda following her seduction by Zeus in the guise of a swan. Compare the Iliad, which begins nine years after the start of the Trojan War, rather than at its beginning.
With likely origins in oral tradition, the narrative technique of beginning a story in medias res is a stylistic convention of epic poetry, the exemplars in Western literature being the Iliad and the Odyssey (both 7th century BC), by Homer. Likewise, the Mahābhārata (c. 8th century BC – c. 4th century AD) opens in medias res.
The classical-era poet Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro, 70–19 BC) continued this literary narrative technique in the Aeneid, which is part of the Roman literary tradition of imitating Homer. Later works starting in medias res include the story "The Three Apples" from the One Thousand and One Nights (c. 9th century), the Italian Divine Comedy (1320) by Dante Alighieri, the German Nibelungenlied (12th century),[citation needed] the Spanish Cantar de Mio Cid (c. 14th century), the Portuguese The Lusiads (1572) by Luís de Camões, Jerusalem Delivered (1581) by Torquato Tasso,[citation needed] Paradise Lost (1667) by John Milton, and generally in Modernist literature.
Modern novelists using in medias res with flashbacks include William Faulkner and Toni Morrison.