On tropes

It occurred to the author that before we can take the plunge into exploring alternative literature piece by piece, it would do everyone a service to discuss how to go about such a discussion. As an English major, the author assumed that the discussion of tropes should be self explanatory, but as he wants this blog to be open to more people than the elitists that he is a part of, it should be discussed here.

In literary studies there are hundreds of different ways to read any one piece. Generally however people find themselves falling into camps. Some scholars prefer looking at the time period the work was written in (these are called New Historicists), others focus on class or gender struggles (Marxist readers and Feminist readers, respectfully), and still others argue that there is no “right” way to read a book as everyone’s interpretation will be different (Deconstructionists). While the author of this blog does read literary theory from all camps he finds himself mainly in the New Historicist and Formalist (looking not just at word choice and grammar, but evaluating the tropes of a text as well). As that is the case we will primarily be examining these alternative literature through these lenses (please feel free to offer any other literary criticism in the comments however).

Now that the basics are done we can get to the meat.

When examining anything in literature it’s important to understand the genres’ tropes and the common themes. In poetry this is very easy to recognize, rhyme and meter are easy to determine.

An example in poetry would be a poem with a very rigid rhyming structure (ABABAB for instance). Now on the final four lines we get a different pattern (BACC). The poet is using this change to tell you something, in other words the poet wants you to pay attention to these lines especially.

This isn’t limited to rhymes of course, and it’s certainly not limited to poetry. In rock music a song follows a pattern as well (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus). So what is a song trying to say when it strays from this path (chorus, bridge, verse, chorus)? What does it mean when a color film switches to black and white, or in a video game when your character doesn’t die?

It’s these questions we will be asking. When I introduce a piece of alternative literature I will do my best to lay out the tropes for that genre, and in doing so help explain why this form of media deserves to be read as literature.

Cheers!