Flashback: what is this technique in art, and how is it characterized?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Flashback is one of the most common techniques in storytelling. It is designed to reveal the past to the viewer or reader, to tell him what he does not know in connection with the "present tense" in the work.

In fact, the question of what a flashback is can be answered as follows - this is a demonstration of the initial events in the work. The technique helps the author to talk about the motivations of the characters, reveal their skeletons in the closet and the like.

However, this term refers not only to art.

Cinema

Flashback - what is it for cinema? In general, initially, thanks to the art of moving pictures, this term arose. It means "flash back". That is, we seem to be abruptly transported into the past - that is what is shown to us on the screen.

It's hard to explain the flashback technique. What it is is easier to understand with an example. Consider the well-known Lost.

This series is built entirely on them. Without flashbacks in Lost, nothing will be clear. It is they who explain all the conflicts that take place on a mysterious and dangerous island. Flashback gives us the opportunity to better understand the motivations of the characters, their rootsdeeds.

However, the first full flashbacks were used in Citizen Kane. With the help of them, the director keeps a strong and tough intrigue that will not let the viewer go until the end of the film. The constant flashback does not help us clarify the situation here - it only tightens the knot of misunderstanding deeper and deeper and gives the depth of the image for which this film is so famous.

Literature

Do writers use flashback? What does this mean for works of literature? Most likely, this technique was first used there. Of course, people did not immediately come to such a seemingly simple scheme. For example, you will not find it in oral folk art - flashback suggests a very complex system for constructing a story. After all, first of all, it must be necessary.

If you recall from new examples, then the modern bestseller "Fifty Shades of Grey" is literally completely tied to them. Flashback from the perspective of Christian Gray is the most important part of the story. He reveals his past to us. A flashback explains how this man became who he is. And it becomes clear where the passions and desires that hide inside him come from.

An example of a non-standard use of flashbacks is Hunter Thompson's Hell's Angels. It actually consists entirely of them, since the central storyline could take up two or three pages. But after all, the main meaning of the work is precisely in the memoirs of the journalist Thompson: about his life, travels with dangerous bikers from the Hell's Angels motorcycle club.

Video games

In video games, just like in any work, flashback helps to reveal the characters and carries the narrative form. However, they also have completely different functions. Flashback technique is also successfully used in video games. That this is so can be traced in the Assassin's Creed series. The whole “trick” of the game is just in flashbacks that transfer the main character to various historical eras. This is what the core of the game is based on. After all, it is this diversity that is the factor that makes people buy new games again and again in order to immerse themselves in an interesting world.

Flashbacks also torment the protagonist of another game series - Max Payne. Through them, we understand all the bitterness of the loss of the protagonist, who only has left to take revenge on the killers of his wife and children. They also take on a terrifying meaning as they mix reality with the horrors of his imagination.

Psychology

However, this word is alive not only by art. There is another side to the issue, because flashback is also a psychological term. The second name for this effect is re-experiencing.

Flashback in psychology is a disorder experienced primarily by schizophrenic patients, which consists in experiencing the same feeling that a person once experienced. It would seem that this is strange? But the patients endure these sensations exactly with the feeling with which they once experienced the situation. Everything becomes identical: smells, sensations of cold and heat, but without anywhy.

The second side of the term applies to drug addicts. Most often this applies to those who have taken psychedelic substances - after all, they are most susceptible to "visual attacks". The meaning of this phenomenon lies in the fact that those who once took drugs are sharply captured by the same effects that they experienced on themselves. But now he is experiencing it in a completely sober state. And the lanterns that he once saw green under LSD suddenly begin to seem green to him.

Other

The authors did not disdain to use the word "flashback" in the titles of their works. Most often, their main motive is an escape from the past.

The 1990 film "Flashback" is widely known. He talks about how an old hippie was taken for a crime he committed twenty years ago. However, then the unbelievable happens - both the violator of the law and the FBI agent who arrested him escape. They do this in order to understand the past and understand how fair the punishment is. As you can see, the name “flashback” fits perfectly into the context of the film. Reviews from critics about the film were not the best.

Also now, in the period of returning to old video games, you can remember "Flashback" again. It took a long time to pass because of the difficulty. As, in principle, and any game of the Segov era. The plot revolves around a government agent who suddenly found out that almost all the world's politicians have long been captured and replaced by aliens.

Conclusion

In one word notdescribe flashback. That this concept has far from one meaning and accommodates various interpretations becomes clear after the above examples. However, one thing is clear for sure - this term carries a connotation of the past. Reception in an amazing way allows you to tell what happened in the past, but is important for the present. This word refers to festivals, paintings, groups, games and books. Such widespread use is fully consistent with the originality of the technique, without which it is difficult to imagine modern cinema today.