Trope (cinema)

<h2 id="etymology">Etymology</h2>
<p>The term has the same origin as that of <a href="/facts/Trope_(literature)/xwQxCxqx">"trope" in the sense of literature</a>, and derived from this. In turn, this came from the Greek τρόπος (<i>tropos</i>), "turn, direction, way", derived from the verb τρέπειν (<i>trepein</i>), "to turn, to direct, to alter, to change".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> Tropes and their classification were an important field in <a href="/facts/Rhetoric/mB9np26l">classical rhetoric</a>. The study of tropes has been taken up again in modern criticism, especially in <a href="/facts/Deconstruction/t3JuoHqn">deconstruction</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> Tropological criticism (not to be confused with <a href="/facts/Tropological_reading/nB1qxWIT">tropological reading</a>, a type of biblical <a href="/facts/Exegesis/aN3v40ap">exegesis</a>) is the historical study of tropes, which aims to "define the dominant tropes of an epoch" and to "find those tropes in literary and non-literary texts", an interdisciplinary investigation of which <a href="/facts/Michel_Foucault/rWu19rjx">Michel Foucault</a> was an "important exemplar".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a>
</p><p>The use of the term in relation to cinema may be more common in <a href="/facts/American_English/sdAfgPgM">American English</a> than in other dialects.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a>
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<h2 id="in-film-studies">In film studies</h2>
<p>A trope is an element of <a href="/facts/Film_semiotics/Bf7yGQwj">film semiotics</a> and connects between denotation and connotation. Films reproduce tropes of other arts and also make tropes of their own.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> George Bluestone wrote in <i>Novels Into Film</i> that in producing adaptations, film tropes are "enormously limited" compared to <a href="/facts/Trope_(literature)/xwQxCxqx">literary tropes</a>. Bluestone said, "[A literary trope] is a way... of packed symbolic thinking which is specific to imaginative rather than to visual activity... [when] converted into a literal image, the metaphor would seem absurd."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a>
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<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/TV_Tropes/Yk9HPELJ">TV Tropes</a>, a website that catalogues cinematic tropes as well as literary tropes</li></ul>

<h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2>
<ul><li>Ehrat, Johannes (2005). <i>Cinema and Semiotic: Pierce and Film Aesthetics, Narration, and Representation</i>. Toronto Studies in Semiotics and Communication (2nd ed.). University of Toronto Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0-8020-3912-5.</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Rizzo, Michael (2014). The Art Direction Handbook for Film (2nd ed.). Focal Press. p. 513. ISBN 978-0-415-84279-2. <a href="978-0-415-84279-2" target="_blank">978-0-415-84279-2</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>McDonald, Tamar Jeffers (2010). Hollywood Catwalk: Exploring Costume and Transformation in American Film. I.B. Tauris. p. 41. ISBN 978-1-84885-040-8. <a href="978-1-84885-040-8" target="_blank">978-1-84885-040-8</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"trope", Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2009, retrieved 2009-10-16 <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trope" target="_blank">http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trope</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>Childers, Joseph; Hentzi, Gary (1995). "Trope". The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism. New York: Columbia UP. p. 309. ISBN 9780231072434. <a href="9780231072434" target="_blank">9780231072434</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:5"><p>Childers, Joseph; Hentzi, Gary (1995). "Trope". The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism. New York: Columbia UP. p. 309. ISBN 9780231072434. <a href="9780231072434" target="_blank">9780231072434</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:6"><p>"Trope definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary". Collins Dictionary. Retrieved 2019-12-18. <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/trope_1" target="_blank">https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/trope_1</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:7"><p>Monaco, James (1981). How to Read a Film: The Art, Technology, Language, History, and Theory of Film and Media. Oxford University Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-19-502802-7. <a href="978-0-19-502802-7" target="_blank">978-0-19-502802-7</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:8"><p>Bluestone, George (1957). Novels Into Film. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-8018-7386-7. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) <a href="978-0-8018-7386-7" target="_blank">978-0-8018-7386-7</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
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Trope (cinema) open-in-new

Trope (cinema)