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In narratology, a back-story (also back story or backstory) is the history behind the situation extant at the start of the main story. This literary device is often employed to lend the main story depth or verisimilitude. A back-story may include the history of characters, objects, countries, or other elements of the main story. Back-stories are usually revealed, sketchily or in full, chronologically or otherwise, as the main narrative unfolds. However, a story creator may also create portions of a back-story or even an entire back-story that is solely for his or her own use in writing the main story and is never revealed in the main story.

1 Examples of back-stories

Probably the most extensive back-story ever created is that for J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings. (Actually, this back-story existed long before Tolkien ever decided to write the novel.) Other fantasy authors, notably Robert Jordan in his Wheel of Time series, have followed suit. J. K. Rowling's back-story for the Harry Potter books is quite elaborate.

In science fiction, Frank Herbert's Dune series has an extensive back-story, which has allowed other authors to write a series of prequels based on it.

When George Lucas wrote the original Star Wars movies, he wrote a back-story to explain where the characters came from. That backstory became the source of a prequel trilogy of movies and the expanded universe.

The third Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Last CrusadeIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade ( May 24, 1989) is a movie directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Julian Glover, River Phoenix and John Rhys-Davies. It is the third installment of the Indiana Jones movie, begins with a scene set during protagonist Indiana's childhood, explaining where he acquired his hat, his whip, the scar on his chin and his fear of snakeAcrochordidae Aniliidae Anomalepididae Anomochilidae Atractaspididae Boidae Bolyeriidae Colubridae Cylindrophiidae Elapidae Hydrophiidae Leptotyphlopidae Loxocemidae Pythonidae Tropidophiidae Typhlopidae Uropeltidae Viperidae Xenopeltidae Snakes are colds; this in turn led to the televisionSee TV (disambiguation) for other uses and Television (band) for the rock band Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. The term has come to refer to all the aspects of television p series, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles , which can be seen as a back-story to the movie trilogy.

The movies MementoMemento is a film written and directed by Christopher Nolan based on his brother Jonathan's short story "Memento Mori". It stars Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano. The film was released in 2000 to widespread critical acclaim and received a G and IrréversibleIrreversible ( 2002, France) is a film written, directed, edited, and photographed by Gaspar Noe. It is considered to be one of the most controversial and disturbing films ever made, due to its explicit on-camera depiction of rape and a vengeful murder. feature the novel orientation of being told backwards in time, scene by scene, with the concluding scenes occurring first, and so in some sense they may be considered as entirely comprising back-story.

2 Peculiar attributes of back-stories

In a shared universeA Shared universe is a literary technique in which several different authors share settings and characters which appear in their respective works of fiction, often referring to events taking place in the other writers' stories. It can also be called a "sh more than one author may share the same back-story. The later creation of a back-story that conflicts in some way with a previously written main story may require the adjustment device known as retroactive continuityRetroactive continuity commonly contracted to the portmanteau word retcon refers to the act of changing previously established details of a fictional setting, often without providing an explanation for the changes within the context of that setting. Origi.

3 See also

Flashback

Narratology

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Topics: Back-story, Examples Of Back stories, Peculiar Attributes Of...

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