"Dramatized dialogue has the power to unite two unspoken realms: the inner life of a character and the inner life of the reader/audience.” (McKee, 2016:xii-xiv)
"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine" (Casablanca)
"Nobody puts Baby in a corner" (Dirty Dancing)
"The truth is out there" (The X-Files)
There are some lines we hear on TV or film that stick with us, be that because there is some fundamental truth in them, or that they reveal a character’s deepest and darkest secrets, or maybe because they are just perfectly timed and really, really funny. Outside of these catchphrases, scripted dialogue also carries with it more subtle and nuanced qualities that keep the audience engaged. In this seminar, we will take a closer look at exactly how this type of language is constructed.
"Holy mother forking shirt balls! (The Good Place)
"I like the bit where someone says, 'it's bigger on the inside.'" (Doctor Who)
Telecinematic discourse, as we will investigate in this seminar, describes the dialogue uttered in fictional television and film. Over the course of the term we will analyze the different functions ascribed to a script - from storytelling to characterization, to ideological stance and audience reception. Further, we will unpack concepts of genre and register, authenticity, and representation.
Methodological approaches that will be covered: Conversation Analysis, Corpus Linguistics, Multimodality, Variationist Sociolinguistics, Stylistics
Some of the films and series that will be covered: Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Wire, Broadchurch, Fleabag, Firefly, The Breakfast Club
NB: There is no set time slot for watching the material that is covered in class. Should it become apparent that such a session is needed, we will make arrangements then. Normally however, brief introductions and sample scenes will suffice in analysing the respective series/film.
To the Batmobile! |
