finale

From Italian finale (“ending”), from Late Latin fīnālis, from Latin fīnis (“end; boundary, limit”). Doublet of final.

(narratology) The chronological conclusion of a series of narrative works.


interquel

Patterned after prequel, as pre- meaning "before" and inter- meaning "between."

(narratology) An installment in a series of works set chronologically between two of its predecessors.

(narratology) Any middle sequel with an earlier and a later installment. This usage may not be proper.


prequel

Patterned after sequel using pre- (“before”).

'Prequels' are sequels that relate the story that preceded the original film.

1980, Patrick Robertson, Movie Facts and Feats: A Guinness Record Book, New York: Sterling Publishing, page 43:

2008, 26 February, Andrew Pierce, "JRR Tolkien's estate to sue Lord of the Rings filmmakers New Line Cinema over profits, in The Daily Telegraph
They are also threatening to block the production of the long-awaited prequel, The Hobbit, which may now be cancelled.

(narratology) In a series of works, an installment that is set chronologically before its predecessor, especially the original narrative or (perhaps improper usage) any narrative work with at least one sequel.

preqüela

in a series of works, an installment that is set chronologically before its predecessor


sequel

→ Catalan: seqüela (semantic loan)

→ Polish: sequel

→ Russian: си́квел (síkvel)

From Middle English sequele, sequelle, sequile, from Middle French sequele, sequelle and its etymon, Latin sequēla, from sequī (“to follow”). Doublet of sequela.

(narratology) A narrative that is written after another narrative set in the same universe, especially a narrative that is chronologically set after its predecessors, or (perhaps improper usage) any narrative that has a preceding narrative of its own.

продължение

a narrative written after another narrative set in the same universe

продолже́ние

кни́ги, фи́льма


hook

sometimes in Northern England and Ireland, otherwise obsolete

From Middle English hoke, from Old English hōc, from Proto-West Germanic *hōk, from Proto-Germanic *hōkaz, variant of *hakô (“hook”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kog-, *keg-, *keng- (“peg, hook, claw”).
Cognates
Compare West Frisian heak, Dutch haak (“hook”)) (compare West Frisian/Dutch hoek (“hook, angle, corner”), Low German Hook, Huuk); also related to hake.

The hook of Good Boys, Hollywood's latest odyssey of comic adolescent mischief, is that the kids behaving badly are, for once, truly kids.

2019 August 14, A. A. Dowd, “Good Boys Puts a Tween Spin on the R-rated Teen Comedy, to Mostly Funny Effect”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2021-03-04:

(narratology) A gimmick or element of a creative work intended to be attention-grabbing for the audience; a compelling idea for a story that will be sure to attract people's attention.


arc

Inherited from Middle English ark, from Old French arc, from Latin arcus (“a bow, arc, arch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erkʷos (“bow, arrow”). Doublet of arch, arco, and arrow.

der

For while most comics have designated entry points into the story in the form of arcs, Homestuck is one elaborate, self-referencing inside joke collapsed inside its own funhouse mirror reflection.

2015 February 24, Lilian Min, “How the Internet Invented a New Kind of Storytelling”, in The Atlantic:


non sequitur

en-noun

non sequitur (plural non sequiturs or non sequuntur)

non sequiturs (plural)
non sequuntur (plural)

Learned borrowing from Latin phrase nōn sequitur (“it does not follow”).

what does that have to do with the price of tea in China

Having a costumed superhero abduct the vicar was an utter non sequitur in the novel.

Non sequiturs, gratuitous acts, frustrating ellipses, ambiguities, a dearth of emotion: Miss [Lillian] Hellman avails herself of all these current techniques in telling a story that she keeps telling us may not be a story at all.

1980 May 13, Anatole Broyard, “Books of The Times”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(narratology) Any abrupt and inexplicable transition or occurrence.

Gedankensprung

any abrupt and inexplicable transition or occurrence


reveal

From Middle English revēlen, from Old French reveler, from Latin revēlāre (“to reveal, uncover”), from re- (“back, again”) + vēlāre (“to cover”), from vēlum (“veil”).

The comedian had been telling us about his sleep being disturbed by noise. Then came the reveal: he was sleeping on a bed in a department store.

A simple dolly or crane move can be used for an effective reveal. A subject fills the frame, then with a move, something else is revealed.

2002, Blain Brown, Cinematography, →ISBN:

Once you find out what’s going on—the girl is a “hungry,” this film’s term for zombies—it’s still interesting enough, if not quite as powerful. That’s basically what you’re in for with this British postapocalyptic survival horror tale, which starts off strong but dilutes its impact with every consecutive reveal.

2017 February 23, Katie Rife, “The Girl With All The Gifts tries to put a fresh spin on overripe zombie clichés”, in The Onion AV Club:

Even Westworld—based on a science-fiction novel where robots run amok—ended its second season with the ultimate reveal: human beings are simpler and more predictable than the artificial intelligences we create.

2019, Douglas Rushkoff, “Survival of the Richest”, in Extinction Rebellion, editor, This Is Not A Drill, London: Penguin, →ISBN:

(cinematography, narratology, comedy, usually informal) A revelation; an uncovering of what was hidden in the scene or story.


reboot

(narratology) The restarting of a series' storyline, discarding all previous continuity.

reboot

the restarting of a series' storyline, discarding all previous continuity


plot

From Middle English plot, plotte, from Old English plot (“a plot of ground”), from Proto-Germanic *plataz, *platjaz (“a patch”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Middle Low German plet (“patch, strip of cloth, rags”), German Bletz (“rags, bits, strip of land”), Gothic 𐍀𐌻𐌰𐍄𐍃 (plats, “a patch, rags”). See also plat. See also complot for an influence on or source of sense 5.
Sense 9 is a back-formation from for the plot.

cog

If the plot or intrigue must be natural, and such as springs from the subject, then the winding up of the plot must be a probable consequence of all that went before.

c. 1725, Alexander Pope, View of the Epic Poem:

(narratology) The course of a story, comprising a series of incidents which are gradually unfolded, sometimes by unexpected means.


narrator

(narratology) The person or the "voice" whose viewpoint is used in telling a story.


catastrophe

en-noun

catastrophe (countable and uncountable, plural catastrophes)

From Ancient Greek καταστροφή (katastrophḗ), from καταστρέφω (katastréphō, “I overturn”), from κατά (katá, “down, against”) + στρέφω (stréphō, “I turn”).

Pat : he comes like the Cataſtrophe of the old Comedie : my Cue is villanous Melancholly, with a ſighe like Tom o’ Bedlam.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 286, column 2:

(narratology) The dramatic event that initiates the resolution of the plot; the dénouement.

catàstrofe

Ancient Greek tragedies: the solution of the plot


diegesis

Ancient Greek διήγησις (diḗgēsis, “narration”), from διηγέομαι (diēgéomai, “I narrate”)

uder

A novel like Sterne′s Tristram Shandy, however, simply embeds a number of different diegeses on the play-within-a-play model.

1985, Bill Nichols, Movies and Methods: An Anthology, page 504:

The standard distinction between mimesis and diegesis is usually referred to as that between showing and telling, between iconic and indexical signs on the one hand and symbolic signs on the other, between drama and recitation.

1991, Christopher Collins, The Poetics of the Mind's Eye: Literature and the Psychology of Imagination, page 4:

Extradiegetic music is a matter of pure convention. It constitutes an exception within Hollywood classical cinema, in which everything is to belong to diegesis in order to elaborate a fictive, realistic universe.

2004, Sarah Hatchuel, Shakespeare: From Stage to Screen, page 89:

(narratology) A narration or recitation.


climax

en-noun

climax (countable and uncountable, plural climaxes or (rare) climaces)

climaxes (plural)
climaces (plural rare)

From Latin clīmax, from Ancient Greek κλῖμαξ (klîmax, “ladder, staircase, [rhetorical] climax”), from κλίνω (klínō, “I lean, slant”).

bor

As a trafficker in climaxes and thrills and characterization and wonderful dialogue and suspense and confrontations, I had outlined the Dresden story many times.

1969 March 31, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., chapter 1, in Slaughterhouse-Five […] (A Seymour Lawrence Book), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →OCLC, page 4:

(narratology) The culmination of a narrative's rising action, the turning point.

кулминация

turning point in a plot or dramatic action


cliffhanger

From cliff + hanger, evoking the image of someone left hanging from a cliff, thereby having an uncertain fate.
The term "cliffhanger" is considered to have originated with the serialised version of Thomas Hardy's "A Pair of Blue Eyes", published in Tinsley's Magazine in the 1870s, in which the character Henry Knight is left hanging off of a cliff. It was inspired by a real life story from his wife Emma's childhood, when she had to rescue one of her school friends from a similar position.

Back in the early 80s, the hit series Dallas kept the nation guessing with its season-ending cliffhanger "Who Shot J.R.?"

2007 July 2, Hilary Hylton, “Filming Texas in a Good Light”, in Time, archived from the original on 2009-03-15:

(narratology) An ending or stopping point calculated to leave a story unresolved, in order to create suspense.

cliffhanger

(narratology) an ending or stopping point


conscience

en-noun

conscience (countable and uncountable, plural consciences)

From Middle English conscience, from Old French conscience, from Latin conscientia (“knowledge within oneself”), from consciens, present participle of conscire (“to know, to be conscious (of wrong)”), from com- (“together”) + scire (“to know”).

der

(chiefly fiction, narratology) A personification of the moral sense of right and wrong, usually in the form of a person, a being or merely a voice that gives moral lessons and advices.


poetic justice

/pəʊˌɛtɪk ˈd͡ʒʌstɪs/

From poetic + justice, a variant of poetical justice, coined by the English literary critic Thomas Rymer (c. 1643 – 1713) in the work The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider’d and Examin’d (1678): see the quotation.

coinage

For though historical Juſtice might reſt there; yet poetical Juſtice could not be ſo content. It vvould require that the ſatisfaction be compleat and full, e're the Malefactor goes off the Stage, and nothing left to God Almighty, and another VVorld.

[1678, Thomas Rymer, “The Tragedy of Rollo Duke of Normandy”, in The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider’d and Examin‘d […], London: […] Richard Tonson […], →OCLC, page 26:

Poetic Juſtice, vvith her lifted ſcale; / VVhere in nice balance, truth vvith gold ſhe vveighs, / And ſolid pudding againſt empty praiſe.

1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the First”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC, page 3, lines 40–42:

[T]he great object [of a comedy] is to cauſe a hearty laugh, in the accompliſhment of vvhich, the rules of the drama and the exerciſe of reaſon are often held in defiance; at the ſame time that poetic juſtice is carefully adminiſtered, and the vices of human nature are held up to merited execration.

1798 December, “Theatre. [Review of Laugh When You Can by Frederic Reynolds.]”, in The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure: […], volume CIII, London: […] W. Bent, […], →OCLC, page 424:

[W]e cannot expect, nor does poetic justice allow, that a man shall act contary to his own nature through any force of will.

1894, Charles W. Hodell, “Shakespeare’s Opening Scenes as Striking the Key-note of Dramatic Action and Motive”, in Charlotte Porter, Helen A[rchibald] Clarke, editors, Poet Lore: A Magazine of Letters, volume VI, numbers 6–7, [Philadelphia, Pa.: Poet-Lore Co.]; New York, N.Y.: AMS Reprint Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 345:

Literary history, not to mention countless Grade B movies and television serials, teaches us that poetic justice is a standard formula for popular entertainment. […] Since very few people learn their morality from the theater, the enduring appeal of poetic justice must come from the fact that it satisfies needs that go much deeper than simple moral improvement. We can begin to get an insight into these needs by recognizing that poetic justice is a conscious or unconscious imitation of ideal justice.

1969, O[sborne] B[ennett] Hardison [Jr.], “Three Types of Renaissance Catharsis”, in Renaissance Drama, volume 2 (New Series), Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, section II, page 9; republished in Arthur F. Kinney, editor, Poetics and Praxis, Understanding and Imagination: The Collected Essays of O. B. Hardison Jr., Athens, Ga., London: University of Georgia Press, 1997, →ISBN, part 2 (Poetics), page 83:

poetical justice
poetical justice#English

(narratology) Synonym of poetical justice (“the idea that in a literary work such as a poem, virtue should be rewarded and vice punished”)


continuity

en-noun

continuity (countable and uncountable, plural continuities)

Borrowed from Middle French continuité, from Latin continuitas, equivalent to continue + -ity.

In “Treehouse Of Horror” episodes, the rules aren’t just different—they don’t even exist. If writers want Homer to kill Flanders or for a segment to end with a marriage between a woman and a giant ape, they can do so without worrying about continuity or consistency or fans griping that the gang is behaving out of character.

2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(narratology) A narrative device in episodic fiction where previous and/or future events in a series of stories are accounted for in present stories.


anticlimax

anticlimax (countable and uncountable, plural anticlimaxes)

A failed or reverse climax, particularly:

(narratology) An unsatisfying resolution to a narrative, usually owing to a deus ex machina or similarly trivial resolution of the main conflict.


prolepsis

prolepsis (countable and uncountable, plural prolepses)

From Latin prolepsis, from Ancient Greek πρόληψις (prólēpsis, “preconception, anticipation”), from προλαμβάνω (prolambánō, “take beforehand, anticipate”).

der

[…] [Edmund] Plovvden being of the Romiſh perſvvaſion, ſome Setters trapanned him (pardon the prolepſis) to hear Maſſe: But aftervvards Plovvden underſtanding, that the pretender to Officiate vvas no Prieſt, but a meer Lay-man (on deſigne to make a diſcovering) Oh! The caſe is altered quoth Plovvden: No Priest, no Maſſe.

a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, “Shrop-shire”, in The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC, page 3:

(narratology) The practice of placing information about the ending of a story near the beginning, as a literary device.


comic relief

The sequence where Sam carves off Jorah’s infected tissue in secret, stopping every few moments to shush his patient, is presented as comic relief why? Jorah reels back into a diagonal close-up whimpering like a dog. Yellow pus oozes to get those good gross-out laughs. Is the substance of this operation funny to anyone on its face?

2017 July 23, Brandon Nowalk, “The great game begins with a bang on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:

(narratology) The inclusion of a humorous character or scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.


series original

en-noun

series original (plural series originals)

(narratology) The first published narrative in a series of works; a narrative from which later narratives are written after. It serves as the chronological core of the series.


threequel

When last seen, the “Poseidon” had been blown into small pieces. With any luck, this means Mr. Allen can’t possibly make a threequel.

1979 May 25, Janet Maslin, “Inside a Floating Hulk”, in The New York Times:

On the contrary, last summer saw two jocular parodies of 1970’s blaxploitation films: the minor hit Undercover Brother and Beyonce Knowles’s portrayal of Foxxy Cleopatra, a character in the Austin Powers “threequel.”

1999 June 30, Katherine Anne Ackley, Perspectives on Contemporary Issues, Readings Across the Disciplines, Harcourt, fourth edition, Thomson Wadsworth (2006), page 267

This may be the year of the threequel, but not all the franchises will be successful, predicts Mr. Gray.

2007 January 5, Stephen Humphries, “At theaters in 2007, the year of the 'threequel'”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

THE biggest threequels to date have included some great films.
The third part of the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi (1983), then Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) were huge hits.

2007 April 16, Brian Mciver, “Return of the Threequel”, in The Daily Record:

(narratology) The chronologically third part of any series of works, especially a movie trilogy.


lampshade

en-verb

lampshade (third-person singular simple present lampshades, present participle lampshading, simple past and past participle lampshaded)

lampshades (present singular third-person)
lampshading (participle present)
lampshaded (participle past)
lampshaded (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-lampshade.wav

From lamp + shade. The verb sense comes from the idea of making something more conspicuous by hanging a lampshade on it.

Only one short bit of humor is endearing, lampshading the ridiculousness of an eye-mask being able to conceal a superhero's identity.

2011 June 21, Corinne Gaston, “Adapted comic book flick has the ring, but no power”, in Daily Trojan:

Rewriting a whole character is one heck of a chore but the editor/writer must either bite the bullet or indulge in some clever trickery like lampshading.

2013, Heide Goody, Iain Grant, How to Write a Collaborative Novel, →ISBN:

Just as the push by writers in season 4 to make Homer stupider (a trend so established it was lampshaded in "The 138th Episode Spectacular") created some of the best episodes before eventually birthing an unlikable buffoon unaffectionately called "Jerkass Homer", so too is it less the episode itself as much as what it represented.

2019 April 30, Alex Leadbeater, “Did "Marge Be Not Proud" Start The Simpsons' Decline In Season 7?”, in Screen Rant:

(narratology, fandom slang) To intentionally call attention to the improbable, incongruent, or clichéd nature of an element or situation featured in a work of fiction within the work itself.


fabula

From Latin fabula (“story”). Doublet of fable.

(narratology) A series of events forming the basis of a story or narrative.


reported speech

If we were to change "Fred says, 'I will do the housework'" into reported speech it would become "Fred said that he would do the housework."

(grammar, narratology) A form of speech used to express what another has said, often involving a change in tense.

ситләтелгән телмәр

a form of speech used to express what another has said


narrative structure

en-noun

narrative structure (plural narrative structures)

(narratology) The structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which a narrative is presented to a reader, listener, or viewer.


novum

novum (countable and uncountable, plural novums or nova)

In his book Metamorphoses of Science Fiction (1979), Suvin introduced a number of ideas that remain central in sf criticism: cognitive estrangement, the novum and sf's genetic link with utopia.[…]Even more influential in sf theory than cognitive estrangement is Suvin's concept of the novum.[…]Suvin adopts the concept of the novum from the work of Ernst Bloch, for whom the term refers to those concrete innovations of lived history that awaken human collective consciousness out of a static present to awareness that history can be changed. The novum thus inspires hope for positive historical transformations.

2003, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., “7: Marxist theory and science fiction”, in Edward James, Farah Mendlesohn, editors, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, Cambridge University Press, page 118:

It seems that this ‘point of difference’, the thing or things that differentiate the world portrayed in science fiction from the world we recognise around us, is the crucial separator between SF and other forms of imaginative or fantastic literature. The critic Darko Suvin has usefully coined the term ‘novum’, the Latin for ‘new’ or ‘new thing’, to refer to this ‘point of difference’ (the plural is ‘nova’). An SF text may be based on one novum, such as [...]. More usually it will be predicated on a number of interrelated nova, such as [...]. This ‘novum’ must not be supernatural but need not necessarily be a piece of technology.

2006, Adam Roberts, Science Fiction, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), pages 6–7:

cognitive estrangement
cognitive estrangement

(narratology, science fiction) An innovation which is fictional, but, following the logic of cognitive estrangement (characteristic of science fiction), is afforded plausibility by the assumption that the fictional setting is scientifically consistent.


alternate universe

alternate universe (plural alternate universes)

There are moments when he seems to be writing something on the order of Jorge Luis Borges's "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"—an amazing fragment about the alternate universe where every book contains its counterbook, where things become duplicated and "also tend to become effaced and lose their details when they are forgotten."

1980, Maxine Greene, “Response to Philip Jackson,”, in Curriculum Inquiry, volume 10, number 2, page 173:

This American President exists in an alternate universe from the one the real Bill Clinton must inhabit.

1995 November 20, Richard Corliss, “Where Nice Guys Finish First”, in Time:

(literature, narratology) An imaginary realm, often a variant form of the real world, depicting a different way events could have unfolded or the universe could have functioned.


MacGuffin

Alfred Hitchcock
MacGuffin#History_and_use
Ulster

Used by Alfred Hitchcock, as an arbitrary Scottish surname. The actual name comes from Ulster: Mc- (“son of”) + Irish dubh (“black”) + Irish Fionn (literally “fairheaded”).
See also Wikipedia's MacGuffin § History and use.

af

" […] But we wound up realizing you really can't top yourself. You just tell a different story and hope the new MacGuffin is as compelling as the last MacGuffin."

2000, Steven Spielberg, Lester D. Friedman, Brent Notbohm, Steven Spielberg: Interviews:

A paleontologist lately returned from an expedition to Wyoming, where he unearthed the bones of the first brontosaurus (and supplied guns to the Indians on behalf of the Foreign Office, which had succeeded in its policy of balkanizing the North American continent) Mallory comes into possession of the MacGuffin during a Derby Day encounter with Byron's daughter (and Babbage's protégée) Ada. Thereafter he is hounded by a whole rogue's gallery of villains bent on reclaiming the MacGuffin.

(narratology) A plot element or other device used to catch the audience's attention and maintain suspense, but whose exact nature has fairly little influence over the storyline.


flashforward

This "Lone Ranger" begins and ends in a flash-forward, with an elderly Tonto installed in a carnival diorama behind a sign that reads "The Noble Savage."

2013, “Depp’s Tonto: an upgrade on a stereotype or just an updated stereotype?”, in The Washington Post:

(narratology) A dramatic device in which a future event is inserted into the normal chronological flow of a narrative.


heterodiegetic

(narratology) Of or relating to a narrator that does not take part in the plot.


deuteragonist

From Ancient Greek δευτεραγωνιστής (deuteragōnistḗs, literally “second actor”), originally in Greek drama, from ἀγωνιστής (agōnistḗs, “a combatant, pleader, actor”).
By surface analysis, deuter- (“second”) + agonist (“combatant, participant”).

der

δευτεραγωνιστής

surf

The issue is no longer about the artistic representation of woman going on within the story: rather, the art object, now unrelated to the actual woman (at a literal level, at any rate), becomes her deuteragonist and antagonist, and the opposition thus settled becomes further complicated by reversal, exchanges, shifts in their respective positions.

2001, Donatella Izzo, Portraying the Lady: Technologies of Gender in the Short Stories of Henry James, University of Nebraska Press, page 58:

(narratology) A secondary character; specifically, the second most important character (after the protagonist).


premake

From pre- + make. Sense of "prequel to a remake" patterned after remake.


archvillain

From arch- (“chief, most extreme”) + villain.

Madoff is the season's archvillain, accused of having run a Ponzi scheme so vast that future generations may well describe similar swindles as Madoff schemes.

2009 January 6, Clyde Haberman, “We Know About the Mess. Please, Clean Up Carefully.”, in New York Times:

(chiefly narratology) A supreme villain; the most evil or powerful villain.

arkkivihollinen

a supreme villain; the most evil or powerful villain


midquel

(narratology) A work that is set during the timeframe of a previous work, rather than before or after it.


antiheroic

en-adj

antiheroic (comparative more antiheroic, superlative most antiheroic)

more antiheroic (comparative)
most antiheroic (superlative)

“Monsieur Verdoux” may once again be timely, but the audacity of its statement derives less from Chaplin’s antiwar polemic than from his antiheroic pose.

2008 June 8, J. Hoberman, “When Chaplin Became the Enemy”, in New York Times:

(narratology) Of, pertaining to or typical of an antihero.


eucatastrophe

From eu- + catastrophe, coined by English author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien in 1944 as part of a letter: see quotation.

coinage

But at the story of the little boy (which is a fully attested fact of course) with its apparent sad ending and then its sudden unhoped-for happy ending, I was deeply moved and had that peculiar emotion we all have – though not often. […] For it I coined the word ‘eucatastrophe’: the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce).

[1944 November 7, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “88. From a Letter to Christopher Tolkien[,] 28 October 1944 (FS 58)”, in Humphrey Carpenter with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien, editors, Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1981, →ISBN; The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Houghton Mifflin paperback edition, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000, →ISBN, page 100:

Let us hymn the small but journal wonders
of Nature and of households, and then finish
on a serio-comic note with legends
of ultimate eucatastrophe,
regeneration beyond the waters.

1969 June 5, W. H. Auden, “Epistle to a Godson”, in The New York Review, issue:

The "problem" of T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot comes partly from our post-Christian sense of a world where Tolkien's eucatastrophes never happen, and partly from the way we write biography.

1988, Alzina Stone Dale, “Prologue: J. Alfred Prufrock among the Prophets”, in T. S. Eliot: The Philosopher Poet (The Wheaton Literary Series), Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw, →ISBN; T. S. Eliot: The Philsopher-Poet, Authors Guild Backprint.com edition, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, 2004, →ISBN, page 5:

Literary unity demands that once a eucatastrophe happens it must be accepted as part of the story rather than as an arbitrary whim of the author.

2015, John J. Davenport, quoting Eleanor Helms, “The Virtues of Ambivalence: Wholeheartedness as Existential Telos and the Unwillable Completion of Narravives”, in John Lippitt, Patrick Stokes, editors, Narrative, Identity and the Kierkegaardian Self, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 159:

(narratology) A catastrophe (dramatic event leading to plot resolution) that results in the protagonist's well-being.

eucatastrophe

catastrophe that results in the protagonist's well-being


focalization

en-noun

focalization (countable and uncountable, plural focalizations)

From focal + -ization or focalize + -ation.

(narratology) The perspective through which a narrative is presented.


focalize

en-verb

focalize (third-person singular simple present focalizes, present participle focalizing, simple past and past participle focalized)

focalizes (present singular third-person)
focalizing (participle present)
focalized (participle past)
focalized (past)

(narratology) To switch to a particular perspective (focalization)


direct speech

(grammar, narratology) the writing of speech, using the exact words of the speaker, usually between quotation marks


throughline

From through (“passing from one side of something to the other”, adjective) + line. Compare Middle English thurghline (“a brail or buntline”).

cog

Produced by none other than Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Good Boys again most closely resembles a kind of junior-varsity tryout for that duo's Superbad, down to its modestly affecting emotional through-line: an acceptance of the fact that childhood friendships, forged out of proximity and convenience, aren't always destined to last.

2019 August 14, A. A. Dowd, “Good Boys Puts a Tween Spin on the R-rated Teen Comedy, to Mostly Funny Effect”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2021-03-04:

The Russian rockets fell on Babyn Yar, 80 years after the Nazi atrocities it commemorates; Zelenskiy’s face was enough to hammer home the gravity of the thematic throughline.

2022 March 8, Zoe Williams, “Zelenskiy brings down the house with his speech to the Commons”, in The Guardian:

(narratology) In full through line of action: a theme that runs through the plot of a book, film, or other narrative work, or a series of such related works.

fil conducteur

theme that runs through the plot of a narrative work, or a series of such related works


antinarrative

(narratology) A narrative, as of a play or novel, that deliberately avoids the typical conventions of the narrative, such as a coherent plot and resolution.

antinarrativa

a narrative that deliberately avoids the typical conventions of the narrative


Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu

the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu (canonical)

law (“rule”) + of + conservation (“preservation”) + of + ninjutsu (“a martial art used by ninjas”)
The law implies that each team of ninjas has the same finite amount of "power" of martial arts, therefore a team with fewer ninjas has more powerful ninjas.

> The more creativity and ingenuity you give your aliens, the less is
> available for your humans, generally the protagonists, which means
> things will end poorly for Our Heroes. [...]
Sort of like a SCIENCE application of the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu?

2007 December 3, sw <sw@eyrie.org>, “Re: Why so few creative aliens?”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet), message-ID <slrnfl8dbu.6gg.sw@haven.eyrie.org>:

In other words, if I can tweak the minion->normal->elite->solo system into a^([sic]) in-game representation of the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu, there will be much win.

2008 May 19, Nockermensch <ralgomes@gmail.com>, “Re: Ampersand: The Scoop on D&D Insider”, in rec.games.frp.dnd (Usenet), message-ID <11398510-50ce-4342-a223-ca68b86c8b89@25g2000hsx.googlegroups.com>:

The Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu was working in the main characters' favor, but even so, it was hard going.

2011 February 19, Andrew Perron <pwerdna@gmail.com>, “LNH/RACCies: Just Imagine Saxon Brenton vs. Andrew Perron in the Return of the RACCies! #10: Poledancing Phantoms of Limbo”, in rec.arts.comics.creative (Usenet), message-ID <1hmvlegtnnkih$.1p14289mto1ro.dlg@40tude.net>:

(narratology, fiction, informal, humorous) The ability of one or few people to win fights against many opponents.


sequel hook

(narratology, informal) A plot device where information or characters are placed into a plot that can provide the basis for subsequent sequel stories.


self-insertion

en-noun

self-insertion (countable and uncountable, plural self-insertions)

(narratology) A literary device in which the author writes himself or herself into the story as a character.


meet cute

Claudette Colbert
Ernst Lubitsch
Gary Cooper

Accidentally coined by German-American film director Ernst Lubitsch (1892–1947), who had difficulty speaking English, to describe the encounter between the characters played by Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper in the 1938 film Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife.

If this is a distortion of reality, it is a knowingly utopian gesture, and the wit of such conceits lies in placing in tension the ideal with the real and so being more than a series of fancy ‘meet cutes’: […]

1989, Bruce Babington, Peter William Evans, Affairs to Remember: The Hollywood Comedy of the Sexes, Manchester, New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 11:

The hunt for love saturates Western culture. […] Romantic comedies have characters discover one another serendipitously, called "meet-cutes." The lead clumsily spills a drink on his future love interest, setting off a chain of events to love. Meet-cutes affirm the idea that possibility is all around us: love can happen anywhere, at anytime, and with anyone.

2013, Jaime Woo, “How to Find Love on Grindr (if You Hafta)”, in Meet Grindr: How One App Changed the Way We Connect, Canada: [Lulu.com], →ISBN, page 108, column 1:

In some respects, it might be too faithful to the genre it savages; as in many real rom-coms, the energy flags during the plot’s backstretch, and audiences may share the drifting interest of Kyle (Bill Hader) and Karen (Ellie Kemper), who come to regret ever asking Joel and Molly to chronicle their meet-cute.

2014 June 26, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2017-12-07:

When Wade first crosses paths with Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), the ass-kicking fellow “gunter” (or egg hunter) with whom he becomes infatuated, the pair’s meet cute is predicated on the swapping of favorite pop-culture quotes.

2018 March 26, A. A. Dowd, “Steven Spielberg Finds Fun, and maybe even a Soul, in the Pandering Pastiche of Ready Player One”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-05-31:

Café Pick Me Up was a cosy little place with a low pressed-metal ceiling, crammed full of tiny tables, with French cafe chairs and mellow lighting. If you were to write a romcom featuring a meet cute, you’d set it there.

2021 December 26, Alys Fowler, “My winter of love: I was homesick in New York. The quiet Danish poet was just what I was longing for”, in The Guardian:

(narratology, informal) A situation in a film, television series, etc., in which a potential romantic couple meet for the first time in a way that is considered adorable, amusing, or cute.


framing device

“Treehouse Of Horror III”’s framing device finds the good folks of Springfield telling stories during a Halloween party.

2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(narratology) An introductory or main narrative that provides a framework for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories.


trequel

(narratology) A work following a sequel; the third in a series, particularly of films.


UST

UST (countable and uncountable, plural USTs)

Being a hard-core "noromo" (parlance for "no romancer," someone who believes the show's UST, or unresolved sexual tension, is the key to its vitality), I have also flamed "shippers" ("relationshippers," those who want Mulder and Scully to get it on in the film) with now embarrassing vituperations, such as, "Why don't you just go get the lame job you're destined for at the state budget office?"

1998 June 22, John Cloud, “Cinema: An X-Phile Confesses”, in Time:

Fanny has to be wooed with tenderness and humility - cue much UST (Hollywoodese for Unresolved Sexual Tension) as their slow-burn romance creates an incredible chemistry between Russell and Marion.

2006 October 20, Maureen Paton, “Self-made Marion”, in Daily Mail:

Oyelowo is a fashion victim and trots around her new patch in pretty stilettos. She changes her outfit and hair at least four times in each episode and spends a lot of time bickering with her new boss. Oh, did I mention they were an item long ago? Hence all that UST.

2008 June 7, Rosalie Higson, “Light touches add amusement to crime”, in The Australian:

(narratology) Initialism of unresolved sexual tension.


Watsonian

en-adj

Watsonian (comparative more Watsonian, superlative most Watsonian)

more Watsonian (comparative)
most Watsonian (superlative)

From Watson + -ian. "In-universe" sense formed in reference to Dr. John Watson, the fictional author within the text of the Sherlock Holmes stories, in contrast to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the real author of the stories. Started in Sherlock Holmes fandom before spreading to other fandoms. Possibly originating in the "Baker Street Irregulars" fan club and entering the science fiction fandom usage (fanspeak) via the Lois McMaster Bujold mailing list.

I would accept that many of them behave like humans born on earth would, but that must be an artefact of poor translation or our poor understanding of their motives and objectives [Watsonian] or lack of vision on the writers part [Doylist - to borrow some terms from the Bujold mailing list - think 'as written by' Dr Watson or by Arthur Conan Doyle].

2000 October 6, Martin Bonham, “Banks was Re: Multi-culturalism in space?”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet), message-ID <970804830.406747@hermes>:

IIRC, Wells specifically described the choice of Southern England as being as much about "bridgehead" as about "decapitation strike". I think he said something about settling in to the island and building up strength before spreading out to the continent and planet.¶ That's the Watsonian explanation of course, the Doyleist explanation is that he was writing an allegory of white men wiping about the Tasmanians, from the point of view of the Tasmanians. He needed to set it where his English readers would be horrified by the destruction, and the Martian invasion of Korea or Florida or Sri Lanka, or even Ireland, wouldn't have had as much of an impact.

2005 May 30, Del Cotter, “Re: The past as a foreign country”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet), message-ID <oZTd7a9563mCFw2X@branta.demon.co.uk>:

While fans recognize and do engage in Doylist readings, they tend to find Watsonian readings more engaging. Fan fiction writers in particular engage with the text intradiegetically.

2012, Laurie Cubbison, “Russell T Davies, 'Nine Hysterical Women,' and the Death of Ianto Jones”, in New Media Literacies and Participatory Popular Culture Across Borders, →ISBN:

I think the best Watsonian explanation is that shopkeepers aren't quite right in the head. They know that most players intend to rob them blind, but don't understand how the successful ones are doing it.

2014 March 28, Michael Deutschmann, “Re: WhichDevTeam-enabled actions seem like cheating to you?”, in rec.games.roguelike.nethack (Usenet), message-ID <%gcXNTpsfY@bagheera.talosis.ca>:

(fandom slang, narratology) From an in-universe perspective; of or relating to an explanation within the text; internal to the narrative.


jump scare

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-jump scare.wav

They'd do something horrible, maybe kill off a few protagonists, and then make people sit around waiting for the next terrible thing to come along. They called it “setting up a jump scare.”

2011, Mira Grant, Deadline, Orbit, published 2011, →ISBN:

Drag Me to Hell capitalizes on the jump scare, scattering it liberally throughout the film to the point where it becomes almost numbing.

2011, John Rosenberg, The Healthy Edit: Creative Techniques for Perfecting Your Movie, Focal Press, →ISBN, pages 80–81:

This quiet is broken suddenly with an initial jump scare of the puppet's iconic laughter.

2013, Jeffrey Bullins, “Hearing the Game: Sound Design”, in James Aston, editor, To See the Saw Movies: Essays on Torture Porn and Post-9/11 Horror, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 188:

(narratology) The technique, typically used in horror films and video games, of having something occur suddenly and without warning to frighten the audience.

säikäytys

a technique to suddenly scare the audience


play of words

1683, William Atwood, Three Letters to Dr. Sherlock Concerning Church-communion, Jonathan Robinson, page 16,
Great is Diana of the Epheſians, and great is the uſe of the word Church, when good Crafts-maſters have the handling of it; and of all Men thoſe of Rome have ſucceeded beſt at this play of words.

1988, Span, Issue 26, University of Queensland, page 104,
At the outset the reader is fascinated by the complex surface play of words. In the poem 'Paraphrase' the play of words is likened to the play of imagery on the surface of a lake; words 'beckon' and 'whisper', luring the reader towards an undisclosed meaning or goal.

The components of that analysis will be: characterization of a main figure in the narrative, the use of time and the patterning play of words.

2000, John A. Beck, Translators as Storytellers, Peter Lang, page 81:

2000, Stephanie Quinn, Why Vergil?, Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, page 3,
In addition, the selections are organized to make a case for the value of the play of words and for their power, about ideas and history, and art.

(narratology, rhetoric) The ordering of words in a text, speech, etc., taking regard for both the individual words (their meanings, sounds, etc.) and the interplay between them.


Doylist

Doylist (comparative more Doylist, superlative most Doylist)

more Doylist (comparative)
most Doylist (superlative)

From Doyle + -ist, with reference to Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
Adjective formed by analogy to Doyle as the real author of the text, as opposed to Dr. John Watson as the fictional author within the text. Started in Sherlock Holmes fandom before spreading to other fandoms. Possibly originating in the "Baker Street Irregulars" fan club and entering the science fiction fandom usage (fanspeak) via the Lois McMaster Bujold mailing list.

Roddenberry's official explaination^([sic]) was "They always looked like that. We just didn't have the budjet^([sic]) in the 1960's to show them properly."¶ This is one case where I prefer the Doylist explaination^([sic]).

2001 September 30, Rob Wynne, “Re: OK, Enterprise...”, in rec.music.filk (Usenet), message-ID <74Jt7.875$oL3.24397@eagle.america.net>:

(fandom slang, narratology) From a real-world perspective; of or relating to an explanation outside the text; external to the narrative.


hypodiegetic

hypodiegetic (comparative more hypodiegetic, superlative most hypodiegetic)

more hypodiegetic (comparative)
most hypodiegetic (superlative)

In Jane Eyre this hypodiegetic level is only attained four times again, first in chapter fifteen, in which Rochester tells Jane about his mistress Celine Varens, second in chapter twenty-seven [...]

1999, Esther Schönberger-Schleicher, Charlotte and Emily Brontë: a narrative analysis of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, →ISBN, page 182:

Gretta's story, by contrast, has all the force of an authentic performance, a spontaneous speech-act that recreates its own referential validity. As such, it is the most coherent and integrated hypodiegetic act of narration in Dubliners.

2004, Gerald Doherty, Dubliners' Dozen, page 132:

Continuing this issue of depth: backgrounds are also used throughout some issues of Sandman, for example in Sandman #6 (“24 Hours”) where they provide mood, or Sandman #3 (“Dream a Little Dream of Me”) where a hypodiegetic dream story underlies the pages (see for example page 22), with the diegetic narrative sequence overlaid.

2014, Julia Round, Gothic in Comics and Graphic Novels, page 71:

(narratology) Pertaining to a secondary narrative embedded within the primary narrative (a story within a story).


metadiegetic

metadiegetic (comparative more metadiegetic, superlative most metadiegetic)

more metadiegetic (comparative)
most metadiegetic (superlative)

A particularly striking example appears in Hawthorne's next romance, The House of the Seven Gables, in which Chapter 13 consists entirely of a metadiegetic narrative entitled "Alice Pyncheon," composed and read by the diegetic character Holgrave.

1995, Michael Dunne, Hawthorne’s Narrative Strategies, page 87:

The diegetic and metadiegetic aspects of the Joker's use of music also persist. Prince's "Trust" features diegetically in the festival parade as the Joker rides on his birthday-cake float, while the Straussian waltz reappears metadiegetically in the in the cue "Waltz," for the battle between Batman and the Joker's henchman as the Joker waltzes with a semiconscious Vicki in the background. This, and his comment, "shall we dance?" to Batman just before the cue starts again positions this as music that the Joker has control cover: it is more than simply heard in his head.

2004, Janet K. Halfyard, Danny Elfman's Batman: A Film Score Guide, page 108:

Sound effects are often enlisted to externalize a characters' inner thoughts, nightmares, hallucinations, dreams, or wishes. We might hear, for example, the laughter of a child as a woman picks up a doll from childhood. This gives the scene a surreal feeling. This effect is often called meta-diegetic.

2005, Jennifer Van Sijll, “Sound Effects”, in Cinematic Storytelling, →ISBN, page 90:


focalizer

(narratology) A character through which the story is told, and whose perspective the story is told from.


origin story

More unsettling was the origin story of the infamous tell-all book Princess in Love. Diana claimed to be outraged in 1994 when Daily Express journalist Anna Pasternak spilled the beans of her affair with former army officer James Hewitt[…]

2022 April 5, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair:

Premiering July 10, The Anarchists[…]circles loosely around these dilemmas throughout six episodes that alternate between origin story, character study, true crime, and trend report.

2022 July 8, Judy Berman, “The Anarchists Is a Messy, Gripping Anarcho-Capitalist Saga”, in Time:

George Miller returns to direct an origin story for the character that Charlize Theron played in 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road,” with Anya Taylor-Joy in the Furiosa role.

2024 January 1, Holland Cotter, Alissa Wilkinson, Mike Hale, Salamishah Tillet, Jesse Green, “What Our Critics Are Looking Forward to in 2024”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(narratology) An account of how a fictional character or characters became a protagonist or antagonist.


pourquoi story

en-noun

pourquoi story (plural pourquoi stories)

(narratology) A fictional narrative that explains why something is the way it is.


dialogue tag

Not every paragraph of dialogue needs to have a dialogue tag attached to it.

Sometimes inexperienced writers will discover the useful tool of tacking on detail to a dialog tag with a present participal or adverbial phrase: "It's too late," she said, closing the door.

2000, Tom Romano, Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers, →ISBN, page 63:

A dialogue tag has to indicate sound

2004, Leslie Wainger, Writing a Romance Novel For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons:

An alternative style forsakes italics altogether and assigns a dialogue tag: This is going nowhere, he thought.

2011, Deborah Halverson, Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons:

A line of dialogue followed by a dialogue tag looks like this: “Nothing suits me better than a fried egg on toast early in the morning,” Billy said.

2015, Kris James with Laura E. Koons and Stefanie Spangler Buswell, Beyond the Style Manual: Bundle #1, Red Adept Publishing:

(narratology, authorship) A sentence part that attributes a piece of written dialogue to its speaker. (e.g. In "Get out of here," he said, "he said" is a dialogue tag.)


cognitive estrangement

Coined by Yugoslav-born academic, writer and critic Darko Suvin in his 1979 book Metamorphoses of Science Fiction.

In his book Metamorphoses of Science Fiction (1979), Suvin introduced a number of ideas that remain central in sf criticism: cognitive estrangement, the novum and sf's genetic link with utopia. In the notion of cognitive estrangement, Suvin conflate two distinct, but related, ideas of estrangement from earlier literary theory: ostranenie (de-familiarization) from the Russian Formalists, and Berthold Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt (alienation effect).[…]Even more influential in sf theory than cognitive estrangement is Suvin's concept of the novum.

2003, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., “7: Marxist theory and science fiction”, in Edward James, Farah Mendlesohn, editors, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, Cambridge University Press, page 118:

Cognitive estrangement can therefore be seen as defining the textual effects of such work: the text faces its audience with something that will not fit into the existing patterns of verisimilitude, yet is being asserted and explored as fact.

2005, Jan Johnson-Smith, American Science Fiction TV: Star Trek, Stargate and Beyond, I.B. Tauris, page 26:

Darko Suvin, the eminent theorist of science fiction, defined science fiction as a literature of cognitive estrangement, a genre in which the reader enters an imaginative world different or estranged from his or her empirical world, but different in a way that obeys rational causation or scientific law: thus, it is estranged cognitively.

2011, Roger Luckhurst, “1: In the Zone: Topologies of Genre Weirdness”, in Sara Wasson, Emily Alder, editors, Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010, Liverpool University Press, page 21:

(literature, narratology) A narrative logic, characteristic of science fiction, whereby devices used in the story are afforded plausibility by their being placed in the context of the fictional setting, which is envisioned to be scientifically consistent.

spoznajnog očuđenja

narrative logic characteristic of science fiction


allohistorical

/æləˌhɪˈstɔːɹɪkəl/

From allo- (prefix meaning ‘different, other’) + historical.

prefix

If [Alexander] Demandt's essay served as a strident example of the German desire for normalcy, a more subtle example was provided by a brief allohistorical depiction of a Nazi victory in World War II written by German historian Michael Salewski in 1999.

2005, Gavriel D[avid] Rosenfeld, “Germany’s Wartime Triumph: From Dystopia to Normalcy”, in The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, part I (The Nazis Win World War II), page 182:

Thus Django becomes the carrier of the “public use of one's reason”—the Kantian road to enlightenment given to him by the German “Forty-Eighter” dentist–turned-bounty hunter Dr. “King” Schultz, and represents the fictive, allohistorical beginning of the battle against slavery and racism in the United States.

2014, Robert von Dassanowsky, “Dr. ‘King’ Schultz as Ideologue and Emblem: The German Enlightenment and the Legacy of the 1848 Revolutions in Django Unchained”, in Oliver C. Speck, editor, Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained: The Continuation of Metacinema, New York, N.Y., London: Bloomsbury Academic, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, part 1 (Cultural Roots and Intertexts: Germany, France, and the United States), page 25:

The question of the plausibility of the counter-factual is seen as key in all three discussions of allohistorical fiction (as it is in [Alexander] Demandt's and [Niall] Ferguson's examinations of allohistory)[…].

2014, David Malcolm, “The Great War Re-remembered: Allohistory and Allohistorical Fiction”, in Martin Löschnigg, Marzena Sokolowska-Paryz, editors, The Great War in Post-memory Literature and Film, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 173:

(narratology) Relating to alternate history, either as a discipline or genre, or as a specific counterfactual sequence of events.


postquel

I heard that Lucas will shoot all three of the prequels at the same time (like the last two Back To The Future movies were filmed together). The first prequel is shooting for '97 or '98 release. As to when the 'postquels' will be written, shot and released is anybody's guess. I just hope that George sticks with us long enuf for us to complete this amazing storyline.

1995 December 9, Michael Wolf, “Re: Sequel too???”, in rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc (Usenet):

In musicals, when they are not unabashedly revivals, the assumption seems to be all we need do is find appropriate chunks of recent, or not-so-recent, history and cleverly reformulate them. Remakes, re-dos, sequels, prequels, and postquels are all the rage in films, TV, and on the stage.

2001, Charles Marowitz, Stage Dust: A Critic's Cultural Scrapbook from the 1990s, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, →ISBN, page 23:

I'm not saying we should see "The Return of Goldfinger" or "Bond has more fun with Honey Ryder", but it would be a fun and interesting way toi use a Bond that was the same age and time as Fleming's character, without having to resort to prequels, postquels, or parallel universes.

2004 April 14, Peredur Davies, “Re: New James Bond novels - what do you want to see?”, in alt.fan.james-bond (Usenet):

(narratology) A work of fiction which is set after the events of an earlier installment in a series but is not an immediate sequel.


syuzhet

From Russian сюже́т (sjužét), from French sujet, from Latin subiectum.

(narratology) The way in which the story is told throughout a book or film; an employment of narrative.


omniscient narrator

en-noun

omniscient narrator (plural omniscient narrators)

Coordinate term: unreliable narrator

(literary theory, narratology) A narrator with an overarching perspective, seeing and knowing everything that happens within the world of the story, including what each of the characters is thinking and feeling.


poetical justice

/pəʊˌɛtɪkl̩ ˈd͡ʒʌstɪs/

From poetical + justice, coined by the English literary critic Thomas Rymer (c. 1643 – 1713) in the work The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider’d and Examin’d (1678): see the quotation.

coinage

For though historical Juſtice might reſt there; yet poetical Juſtice could not be ſo content. It vvould require that the ſatisfaction be compleat and full, e're the Malefactor goes off the Stage, and nothing left to God Almighty, and another VVorld.

1678, Thomas Rymer, “The Tragedy of Rollo Duke of Normandy”, in The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider’d and Examin‘d […], London: […] Richard Tonson […], →OCLC, page 26:

(narratology) The idea that in a literary work such as a poem, virtue should be rewarded and vice punished.


antenarratology

(narratology) The study of antenarratives and their interplay with narratives and stories.


antenarrative

(narratology) The process by which a retrospective narrative is linked to a living story.