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Author: Headrock

Apr 19th 2015 at 9:14:35 AM

I wrote the original article for DramaticDownstageTurn, and I've just discovered this YKTTW, so I'm going to throw in my two cents, despite the fact that this YKTTW seems dead for two years - it does still have potential (but sadly not enough examples, so I won't add another hat).

The '''Dramatic Downstage Turn''' is ''not'' a sub-trope to this trope - they are actually opposites of sorts (though I would classify them as being closely related, not directly opposed). One is a narrative-driven trope, while the other is a technique-driven trope. I'll explain.

It seems to me like '''Talk to the Back''' covers any in-universe reaction of one character to another, where Alice actively turns her body away to give a physical signal to Bob, or out of a direct display of emotion towards Bob. It is a purely natural reaction.
In contrast, the '''Downstage Turn''' is a purely out-of-universe convention, an interaction with the ''audience'' that the narrative ''does not'' necessarily justify. It is a purely unnatural positioning for the benefit of the audience.
In other words, whereas Talk to the Back can occur in everyday life and won't seem strange, Dramatic Downstage Turn can only occur in a ''visual'' work of art, imposed on the characters for whatever reason the scene's designer had. A Downstage Turn, for instance, cannot occur in a ''book'', whereas Talk to the Back could.

So these two are distinct tropes, which could be contrasted with one another, and have a strong horizontal relationship rather than being sub- and uber-tropes.

However, this puts a great onus on editors to ensure that the examples they are describing actually belong to the correct trope. So if Talk to the Back is ever launched, this needs to be given a lot of attention, and both articles need to ensure that they describe the ''difference'' between them so that new editors won't get confused.