Everything about Prequel totally explained
A
prequel is a work that portrays events which include the structure, conventions, and/or characters of a previously completed narrative, but occur at an earlier time. The word is a
neologism, formed as a
portmanteau from
pre-, meaning before, and
sequel, a work which takes place
after a previous one (although the word
sequel comes from the Latin verb
sequor, there's no verb "
prequor"). Its meaning is easily grasped and it has passed into common usage. A similar term would be
protosequel, as adopted in other languages, like the Spanish "protosecuela".==History==
According to
OED the word
prequel first appeared in print in
1958 in an article by
Anthony Boucher in
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It appears to have first come into general use in the early
1970s, in which its first known, traceable use is in the original press pack for
The Godfather Part II, where it's used to describe the sections of the film which take place before the events of
The Godfather, which intercuts the further story of the Corleone
mafia family under the leadership of
Michael Corleone with the story of his father
Vito Corleone in his youth.
According to
IMDb, the first prequel in film was
The Nightcomers (1972) based on the book by Henry James, prequeling all the previously made movies based on his novel
The Turn of the Screw.
The 1979 film
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days was a prequel to
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Francis Ford Coppola credited
George Lucas with devising the term, which Lucas and
Steven Spielberg later used to describe their joint project
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (which also occurred before the events of the
first Indiana Jones film) during publicity for its release.
Lucas's own
Star Wars prequel
trilogy greatly popularized the term in American culture.
Like sequels, prequels may or may not concern the same plot as the work from which they're derived. Often, they explain the background which led to the events in the original, but sometimes the connections are not as explicit. Sometimes, prequels play on the fact that the audience knows what will happen next, using deliberate references to create
dramatic irony.
The idea of a prequel isn't new. The
libretti for the four operas of
Richard Wagner's
Ring Cycle –
Das Rheingold,
Die Walküre,
Siegfried and
Götterdämmerung – were written in reverse order, making each opera a prequel to the preceding one.
Another example of a prequel in
C. S. Lewis'
The Chronicles of Narnia is
The Magician's Nephew, a prequel to
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which was written first. Though originally they were unplanned and unnumbered, many newer publications of the series order them chronologically in regards to the storyline. There is debate as to whether this was an appropriate change.
The term prequel is sometimes used to describe any work with a sequel. This is contrary to the term's original meaning, which defines a prequel as a
type of sequel, not the converse
of a sequel. For example, (Episode I, 1999) is a prequel to (Episode VI, 1983), but not to (Episode II, 2002).
List of prequels
Literature
Plays
Films
Television
Computer and video games
Manga and anime
Cross-media
Further Information
Get more info on 'Prequel'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://prequel.totallyexplained.com">Prequel Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
