Line #9 Main/Trope


1	You've seen this somewhere before…
2
3	Merriam-Webster [[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trope gives a definition]] of "trope" as a "figure of speech." In storytelling, a trope is just that -- a conceptual figure of speech, a storytelling shorthand for a concept that the audience will recognize and understand instantly.
4
5	Above all, a trope is a convention. It can be a {{plot}} trick, a setup, a narrative structure, a character type, a linguistic idiom... you know it when you see it. Tropes are not inherently disruptive to a story; however, when the trope itself becomes intrusive, distracting the viewer rather than serving as shorthand, it has become a [[{{cliche}} cliché]].
6
7	On Website/ThisVeryWiki, "trope" has the even more general meaning of a pattern in storytelling, not only within the media works themselves, but also in related aspects such as the behind-the-scenes aspects of creation, the technical features of a medium, and the fan experience. The idea being that storytelling is not just writing, it is the whole process of creating and telling/showing a story.
8
9	[[https://www.etymonline.com/word/trope Etymologically]], "trope" is from Greek, meaning "turn".[[note]]The same root is actually shared with the "tropics", the point at which the sun "turns around" at the end of a season. In other words, a trope in literature was a "turn of phrase." Of course, the meaning expanded a while ago.[[/note]]
10
11	Around here, it is a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonce_word stunt root]], as in, "That isn't really different enough from our other tropes to be separately [[Administrivia/IsThisTropable tropeable]]." Whether or not a subject is a trope is referred to as being "tropeable" or "tropeworthy"; works that are particularly tropeable are often referred to as ''{{Troperiffic}}''.
12
13	The intent being to set Noah Webster spinning in his grave as quickly as possible.[[note]]Once he gets going fast enough, we can hook him to a generator and [[CrazyPrepared ride out the coming energy crisis]]. Never assume that we don't have humanity's best interests at heart, even if what we're doing seems frivolous.[[/note]]
14
15	Don't let all this give you the impression that we exactly ''invented'' our sense of "trope": the more or less synonymous expression "resonating tropes" long pre-existed the site and community here, and you will find people outside of and independent of the site using the word "trope" in the same fashion that we do. Note that currently the Oxford English Dictionary actually recognizes the definition "a significant or recurrent theme; a motif", its earliest quotation for this meaning being from 1975. [[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trope Merriam-Webster]] also somewhat recognizes this meaning, but twists it into "a common or overused theme or device: cliché", which seems [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools unjustly condemning]]. [[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trope Wiktionary]], on the other hand, shows that our use of the word was used in ''1776'', meaning the word "trope" is the same age as America.
16
17	We also didn't invent the notion of finding and cataloging as many tropes as humanly possible or the idea of all media being formed around the same set of core tropes. A perusal[[note]]Choose the definition you think best applies[[/note]] of our BooksOnTrope page and the works linked there will show you that people have been identifying and discussing patterns in media for ''centuries''. [[OlderThanTheyThink The first troper on record was, in fact, Aristotle]]. Yes, '''THAT''' Creator/{{Aristotle}}.
18
19	See PlayingWithATrope for a comparison of the ways that a trope can be used.
20
21	Contrast Administrivia/NotATrope and also see {{Tropes}} for an index of tropes.

Context Main / Trope