Foreshadowing Definitions

Foreshadowing

• Literary device used to hint at future events in a text

• When authors give hints about what is happening next.

Prediction

• Logical and based on clues

• Reader taking details from a text and use them to support what they predict happens next.

Concrete Foreshadowing

• Referred to as ‘Chekov’s Gun” 

• Author explicitly stating something they want you to be aware of for the future.

Prophecy

• Prominent foreshadowing (Prophecy) is linked to a fortune or a prophecy that a character will receive and explicitly tells the reader what happens in the future.

• The fortune or omen can seem unclear, but end up coming true in the end. 

Flashback/Flash-forward

• When authors want readers to know stuff that isn’t fitting in the current storyline.

• Used by authors to give the readers information, and mostly the info will have clues/hints to something the author wants you to remember or pick up on later. 

Flashback(specific)

• Implemented by:

• Narrator telling another character about past events.

• A dream about past events

• Thinking back to past events, revealing the info to the reader.

• Reads a letter that prompts back to an earlier time.

Abstract/Symbolic Foreshadowing

• Requires out of the box thinking

• Author describing sudden changes in a character’s luck, mood, or behavior. 

Red Herring/Fallacy

• When authors intentionally trick readers and divert their attention. 

• Purpose: Causes more suspicion, intrigue, and surprise. 

• Commonly found in detective fiction works.