A figure of forgetting in narration: past simple in the analepsis
In narratives, French plus-que-parfait (past perfect) is regularly used to indicate that the situation referred to is located prior to another past situation. When these flashbacks stretch for a long time, and gain some autonomy, they may form a real ‘narrative in a narrative’ (analepsis). It may happen, then, that the passé simple (past simple) takes over from the plus-que-parfait inside the analepsis. This article examines the environments and the conditions of this tense switching inside the analepsis.
