Retardation

Retardation (from the Latin for 'delay, slowing') is a compositional device of deliberately slowing the development of the plot action before the climax or denouement in order to heighten tension, expectation, and the reader's interest. Retardation is achieved by means of extended descriptions, authorial digressions, inset episodes, repetitions, and detailed characterizations that delay the immediate course of events. This device allows the reader to be kept in a state of tense expectation, to prepare the perception of the decisive moment, and to give the work epic fullness. Retardation is especially characteristic of epic genres — heroic epic, the novel, the narrative poem — where the expansiveness of the narration is a generic feature. The slowing of the action through detailed descriptions of nature, everyday life, and psychological states marks, in particular, the classic realist novel. The masterful use of retardation testifies to the writer's perfect command of the art of composition and his ability to govern the reader's attention and the emotional rhythm of the work.