Dialogue

Writers/authors cannot replicate real conversation, it will always be fabricated. Dialogue is created because people fall into roles during discourse → in the moment. Two or more people talking in a book/movie/etc.

Tarantino is a director known for tightly written dialogue in his screenplays, with a short example here, from "Pulp Fiction": [Jules Winnfield] "What country are you from?" // [Brett] "What? What? Wh – ?" // [Jules Winnfield] “What” ain’t no country I’ve ever heard of. They speak English in What?"

Dionysian

Based off of Apollo and Dionysus in Greek Mythology. Dionysian attributes- excess, irrationality, lack of discipline, and unbridled passion.

Intoxication and insanity are Dionysian, as are all forms of blissful ecstasy. Music also represents Dionysus, as it appeals to emotion, not reason.

Discourse

Greater analysis of a conversation, not a dialogue. Conversation that is happening surrounding something. So many different definitions of it, hard to differentiate form dialogue.

Political discourse can be found on Twitter, debates, mainstream media.

Dynamic VS Static

One who undergoes major change in personality, character, or perspective in the story VS one who remains the same in a story. Background character, no major change.

Brian Reed's character remains static throughout S-Town, being a narrator who is just retelling his story, without being too actively involved in the plot. Meanwhile, Tyler undergoes much change, namely in the toll John's death took on him.

Elision

Silencing or ignoring a vowel's presence in a word or phrase by combining the shortened word with another word, using the suppression to lessen syllable count.

The words "over there" and be combined into a much shorter "o'er".

End Stop

A line of poetry ends with a period or definite punctuation mark, such as a colon.

"Bright Star" by John Keats contrasts enjambment with each line being punctuated, rather than continued by the following, shown in the first two lines: “Bright Star, would I were as stedfast as thou art — Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night,"

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

Lines 2-3 of "Endymion" by John Keats shows two lines of poetry that pour over from one to the other: "Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness but still will keep".

Figure of Speech

Expression of words commonly used to articulate complex meaning apart from the literal meaning of the words themselves.

When someone tells another person that guy is "the hottest guy alive," they are not referring to the guy's temperature, nor is he literally the most attractive person ever. This figure of speech is both a metaphor and a hyperbole to describe someone's attractiveness.

Flashback

Shifting the timeline of a story's narration, often used to detailedly feature an explanation for something that happens later in the chronological sequence of the plot.

In "Harry Potter," J.K. Rowling implemented a device to relay memories to another person, letting them experience them from the perspective of the memory's host, to show Harry flashbacks from people such as Dumbledore and Snape.

Flyting

Exchanging "slang" lines of poetry between two opposing poets who wish to publicly humiliate and attack the other.

Rap battles, especially when formatted as diss tracks, are modern day examples of flyting.

Foreground

What appears closest/most prominent to someone. Can be different based on audience - subjective. Contrasted by background.

S-Town, in the beginning, focused more on John and his life in the foreground, with the potential murder case's fishy details being pushed to the background. Character introduction took the front seat, forcing the overall plot development to the backseat.

Gaps & Silences

Sections of a text leaving the audience with unanswered questions. What is said without being explicitly stated.

In "Little Red Riding Hood," there is no scene depicting the wolf devouring the titular female character's grandma, but the audience can fill in this gap upon realizing the wolf took her clothes and attempted to imitate the grandmother.

Graphic Novel

Story told through comics, utilizing art, panels, and speech bubbles to tell a story in absence of the traditional novelistic format.

Many graphic novels, between DC and Marvel intellectual properties, have been adapted as feature length films in today's movie industry, the most popular way to receive stories.

Heteroglosia

The coexistence of distinct varieties within a single "language". Diversity of voices, styles of voices, or point of view.

The language "Parseltongue" spoken by snakes, exemplifies heteroglossia seen in Harry Potter.

Hiatus

Separation of pronunciation seen sometimes when placing two vowels next to each other. Also can mean a break in a sentence's structure.

The letters "ea" make a uniform sound when in "mean," but separate sounds when in "meander," which shows their hiatus.

Iambic Pentameter

Lines in poetry or text with five metrical feet, with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

Shakespeare's "shakespeare: "But, soft! what a light through yonder widow breaks?" exhibits a meter of iambic pentameter.

Idiolect

The specific dialect a person or character speaks in.

Tom Haverford's rant about his nicknames for food in "Parks & Recreation" showcases his idiolect, beginning with the sentences: "Zerts are what I call desserts. Tray-trays are entrees. I call sandwiches sammies, sandoozles, or Adam Sandlers."

Image

Strictly visual or verbal representation of something. Can be framed - start, middle, end. Color, brightness, saturation, filters can be changed visually.

In S-Town, John paints an image with words when describing Roger in Ch 2: "It's really amusing to see how he can balance a cigarette on that one tooth. And the whole time he's talking —this cigarette is just bouncing around all over that one tooth, and he never loses that son of a bitch."

Imagery

Implementing figurative language to symbolize or depict objects, actions, ideas, or settings in a way that appeases the physical senses.

Ronald Dahl is fantastic at using imagery, specifically to describe characters, such as his description of Miss Trunchbull in "Matilda": "She had once been a famous athlete, and even now the muscles were still clearly in evidence. You could see them in the bull-neck, in the big shoulders, in the thick arms, in the sinewy wrists and in the powerful legs."

Interlude

Brief play believed to have been conducted by small groups during brief intervals of breaking periods that took place during important events during the rise of theater in London.

Rap songs today showcase modern day interludes, which today are usually verbal skits, stories, or instrumentals transitioning from one song to another.