in medias res, (Latin: “in the midst of things”)
in narrative technique, the recommended practice of beginning an epic or other fictional form by plunging into a crucial situation that is part of a related chain of events; the situation is an extension of previous events and will be developed in later action. The narrative then goes directly forward, and exposition of earlier events is supplied by flashbacks.
* taken from the encyclopedia britannica, without activating my free trial.
