In medias res, also medias in res (Latin for "into the middle of things") is a literary and artistic technique where the narrative starts in the middle of the story instead of from its beginning (ab ovo or ab initio). The characters, setting, and conflict are often introduced through a series of flashbacks or through characters relating past events to each other. Probably originating from an oral tradition, the technique was established in the 8th century BC in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and became a convention of epic poetry.^[1] Other folk epics beginning in medias res include the Spanish Cantar de Mio Cid, the French Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland), Germany's Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs), the East Indian Mahābhārata, and the Finnish Kalevala. Virgil's Aeneid began the tradition in literature of imitating Homer,^[1] continued in Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, John Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante's Divine Comedy. For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Ab ovo (Latin — from the egg) is a reference to one of the twin eggs of Leda and Zeus disguised as a swan from which Helen was born. ... In literature and film, a flashback (also called analepsis) takes the narrative back in time from the point the story has reached, to recount events that happened before and give the back-story. ... Oral tradition or oral culture is a way of transmitting history, literature or law from one generation to the next in a civilization without a writing system. ... (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) Ruins of the training grounds at Olympia, Greece. ... For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... title page of the Rihel edition of ca. ... For other uses, see Odyssey (disambiguation). ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of narrative poetry, characterized by great length, multiple settings, large numbers of characters, or long span of time involved. ... A page from the original codex, starting from line 1922 El Cantar del Mio Cid is the oldest preserved Spanish cantar de gesta. ... Eight phases of The Song of Roland in one picture. ... The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. ... Mahabharat redirects here. ... The Kalevala is an epic poem which the Finn Elias Lönnrot compiled from Finnish and Karelian folklore in the 19th century. ... For other uses, see Virgil (disambiguation). ... Aeneas flees burning Troy, Federico Barocci, 1598 Galleria Borghese, Rome The Aeneid (IPA English pronunciation: ; in Latin Aeneis, pronounced — the title is Greek in form: genitive case Aeneidos) is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC (between 29 and 19 BC) that tells the legendary story... The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... Jerusalem Delivered (La Gerusalemme liberata) (1580) is a baroque epic poem by Torquato Tasso which tells the (largely fictionalized) story of the First Crusade in which Christians knights, lead by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to raise the siege of Jerusalem. ... For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Paradise Lost (disambiguation). ... DANTE is also a digital audio network. ... Dante shown holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, in Michelinos fresco. ...

Etymology

The terms in medias res and ab ovo (literally "from the egg") both come from the Roman poet Horace's Ars Poetica ("Art of Poetry", or "The Poetic Arts"), lines 147–148, where he describes his ideal for an epic poet^[2]: Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. ... Horace, as imagined by Anton von Werner Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. ... Ars Poetica is a term meaning The Art of Poetry or On the Nature of Poetry. Early examples of Ars Poetica by Aristotle and Horace have survived and have since spawned many other poems that bear the same name. ...

The "double egg" is a reference to the origin of the Trojan War with the mythical birth of Helen and Clytemnestra from an egg laid by their mother, Leda, after she was raped by Zeus in the form of a swan. Helen of Troy redirects here. ... Clytemnestra trying to awake the Erinyes while her son is being purified by Apollo, Apulian red-figure krater, 480–470 BC, Louvre (Cp 710) After the murder (1882 painting) Clytemnestra (or Clytaemestra) ‘‘(Eng. ... Leda and the Swan, 16th-century copy after the lost painting by Michelangelo Leda with the Swan, by Correggio In Greek mythology, Leda (Λήδα) was daughter of the Aetolian king Thestius, and wife of the king Tyndareus, of Sparta. ... For other uses, see Zeus (disambiguation). ...

Popular use

This narrative method has proven very popular throughout the ages, including frequent use in Modernist literature, e.g. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier. The technique can also be seen in cinema, including The Bourne Ultimatum, Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers, Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, Taylor Hackford's Devil's Advocate, Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, Kubrick's "Lolita" and the Korean film Oldboy. Modernist literature is the literary form of Modernism and especially High modernism; it should not be confused with modern literature, which is the history of the modern novel and modern poetry as one. ... For other uses, see Heart of Darkness (disambiguation). ... The Good Soldier is a 1915 novel by English novelist and editor Ford Madox Ford. ... The Bourne Ultimatum is a three-time Academy Award winning 2007 film loosely based[1] on the Robert Ludlum novel of the same name. ... Gillo Pontecorvo (November 19, 1919 — October 12, 2006) was an Italian filmmaker, best known for La battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers), but directed several movies before its release in 1966, such as the drama Kapò (1960), which takes place in a World War II concentration camp. ... The Battle of Algiers (in Italian, La Battaglia di Algeri) is a 1965 black-and-white film directed by Gilles Pontecorvo. ... Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese (IPA: AmE: ; Ita: []) (b. ... Goodfellas (also spelled GoodFellas) is a 1990 film directed by Martin Scorsese, based on the book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, the true story of mob informer Henry Hill. ... Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American-born actor, director and producer. ... This article is about the film. ... Taylor Hackford (born December 31, 1944 in Santa Barbara, California) is an American film director. ... DVD cover The Devils Advocate is a 1997 drama movie directed by Taylor Hackford and based on a 1990 novel by Andrew Neiderman. ... Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film by director Quentin Tarantino, who cowrote the film with Roger Avary. ... Kill Bill is the fourth film by writer-director Quentin Tarantino. ... This article is about the Korean film. ...

Though not strictly in medias res, the film Memento is a very good example of storytelling through flashbacks – while the main part of the film plays in reverse chronology, the backstory is explained via a separate series of flashbacks running in the correct order, with the two narratives converging at the end of the film. The start of the film is, therefore, both the end of one sequence of events and the start of the other, with the literal middle of the timeline falling at the end of the film. Memento is a neo-noir–psychological thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, adapted from his brother Jonathans short story Memento Mori. ... Reverse chronology is a method of story-telling whereby the plot is revealed in reverse order. ...

In television, the modern TV show Lost starts medias in res explicitly where the show starts with several characters crash-landing on an island. Over the course of several seasons of the show, we learn about the characters through flashbacks. A sitcom which uses the device is How I Met Your Mother on CBS. LOST redirects here. ... A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ... How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) is a CBS sitcom that premiered on September 19, 2005. ... This article is about the broadcast network. ...

All of the Star Wars films use this method to some extent in the beginning after the introduction, and the entire series itself uses this method, as the chronologically fourth film was released first. This article is about the series. ... This movie poster for Star Wars depicts many of the films important elements, such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, X-Wing and Y-Wing fighters Star Wars, retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1981 (see note at Title,) is the original (and in chronological...

Many non-fiction articles from Reader's Digest use this technique of storytelling. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

See also

• Reverse chronology
• Flashback/analepsis
• Flashforward/prolepsis
• Cold opening

Reverse chronology is a method of story-telling whereby the plot is revealed in reverse order. ... In literature, film, television and other media, a flashback (also called analepsis) is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. ... A flashforward (also sometimes known as flash-forward or flash-ahead) in a narrative occurs when one or more scenes representing an event expected, projected or imagined to occur at a time later than the present depiction (see also Glossary: Flashforward). ... A cold open in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show, before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. ...

References