Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2021 August 16

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August 16

Name for chapter summary

Is there a specific name for a brief plot summary, typically written as a series of short nominal sentences, placed at the beginning of every chapter in some works of fiction? See here for an example of what I mean. — Kpalion^(talk) 21:32, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

Seems a bit like an abstract, though I'm not so sure that term is used in literature. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:46, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

I checked Preface and it led to Epigraph (literature). That might be it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:49, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

Good call, Mr B! Alansplodge (talk) 22:30, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

Thank you, Baseball Bugs. "Epigraph" is close, but it's not exactly what I meant. I've found it, though; it's "argument". Must be one of the more obscure meanings of this word. — Kpalion^(talk) 09:26, 17 August 2021 (UTC)

Resolved

Wait...what about comic books? That back-of-the-box-type teaser, that splash page synopsis, that enchanctingly ubiquitous introduction. Who's to say whether they, too, are or aren't valid literal "arguments"? InedibleHulk (talk) 04:20, 18 August 2021 (UTC)

Three Invalids.—Sufferings of George and Harris.—etc. I always took this to be an artifact of serial publication? Well that's the wrong link. Serial (literature). fiveby(zero) 03:35, 19 August 2021 (UTC)