Literary question

[shamus]

Some novels open placing the protagonist in a new town/country/situation perhaps following some crisis/accident/illness or similar.
Does this technique have a name?

[htom]

Sometimes it's a "fish out of water"; tvtropes has variations, examples, details. Sometimes the character has been there before, but she's changed and sees it differently, or it looks the same as a familiar place but it's different, or ... a great way for the protagonist to discover a conflict.

[shamus]

Thank you, that link covers the varieties well!

[purri]

It's called poor plot development.

[Phillip Allen]

I thought it was called "Once Upon a Time"

[shamus]

It's called poor plot development.

That seems a severe judgement. One thing in its favour is that it completely avoids "As you know, John..."

[purri]

^ I'm an ESTJ. enough said.

[PeterSibley]

It's called poor plot development.

Nup.

[purri]

^ think about it.

[htom]

Thinking.

No, doesn't have anything to do with plot development, at least as I was taught. Plot is the story of a character from B to C (the character's life runs from A ... D); this is just a way to hook the reader. If you think great writing doesn't have hooks, you're just not seeing them because they're so well done.

[MiddleAgesMan]

In a short writing course I took many years ago a noted author was cited for beginning all of his novels with an arrival. That seems to be a corollary to the proposition in the OP but, no, I don't think it has a name.