larryhammer | “it was gone / i cannot put my finger on it now / the child is grown / the dream is gone”

A question for those of you who know about such things, or at least know more than I do.

Is there a term for a series where internal and external chronologies are supposedly tied but in fact slip relative to each other? That is, where installments are supposed to take place at the time of release, as evidenced by direct dates or dateable public events, but the installments appear over a longer span than internal chronology.

As an example, and what sparks my query, the Chalet School books by Elinor Brent-Dyer. The first 14 books were published between 1925 and 1940, with #2 set in 1925 at the latest, given the Robin’s history and age, and #14 explicitly starting in February 1938, in the run-up to Germany’s annexation of Austria, while also explicitly taking place eight years after #1—the series consistently establishes an internal timeline with references to events of previous volumes, and this is no exception. (In general, the books came out annually but covered a triannual term, only occasionally skipping terms.) A couple volumes in the middle there can also be tagged to the time of writing / publication.

Another case is Yotsuba&!: per the author, each chapter takes place in the year it’s serialized even though by internal chronology six months pass over the 15 volumes published since 2003—thus justifying how tech, styles, and car models are of their time. I’ve met a couple others, and I’m sure people can name more.

But is there a term for this sort of thing? Or do we need to coin one?

ETA: Floating timeline it is. (hat tip)

---L.

Subject quote from Comfortably Numb, Pink Floyd.