Final answer:
Flashback is a literary device used to inform the reader of past events, often adhering to the Old-before-New principle. It provides context and background for the narrative and requires careful use of verb tenses to signal the shift in time within the story.
Step-by-step explanation:
Flashback is used when the writer wants to inform the reader of events that occurred before. This literary technique allows an author to insert past events into the current narrative, providing background for the character's actions or context for the story. An acknowledged example of a flashback can be found in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce, where the story’s present action pauses to explore events that have led up to the protagonist’s current predicament.
The use of flashbacks is often a method to follow the Old-before-New principle in storytelling. This principle advises writers to sequence information by starting with what readers might already know (the old information), before introducing them to new concepts or elements in the narrative. By doing so, the flow of the story is easier for the reader to follow and the new information has more impact since it builds upon the established context. In literary works, an author may also use various verb tenses to signal changes in the timeline of the story. This necessitates a careful choice of tenses to clearly indicate to the reader when the action being discussed is taking place. For instance, a change from the present tense to the past tense helps signal a shift from the current moment in the story to a reflection upon earlier events. Flashbacks, in this respect, may require a temporary switch in tense to designate their occurrence in the past. This technique is evident when considering the writing strategies of authors such as William Faulkner or F. Scott Fitzgerald, who often employ past-tense narration to describe events that happen before the main timeline of their novels.