Dialogue and Genre in Italian Cinema after the War. A Study of the Representation of Verbal Interaction in Films
The study is a linguistic investigation of dialogue in a number of Italian films. It begins to correct for the academic disregard for speech in film studies and the paucity of research on the portrayal of fictional discourse in areas other than drama and literary prose. The purpose ofthe research is to identify the speech patterns that reflect the representation of dialogue in various film genres; the hypothesis is that different discourse styles are indexed to specific film genres, therefore, an accurate definition of genre cannot fail to take into account the plane ofdiscourse, in addition to iconography, narrative and soundtrack. Film discourse is approached from the specific angle ofthe representation of conflict, and the study follows how characters in the various genres disagree and argue along a cline that goes from cooperativeness and solidarity-based conflict to uncooperativeness and disfluency-based confrontation. The choice of this particular angle is based on the conviction that conflict talk often highlights pivotal moments in films and can suggest the diverse patterns ofdiscourse characteristic of vurious genres. Four are the main genres explored in the study, namely comedy, mc1odrama, horror
Piazza, Roberta
Dialogue and Genre in Italian Cinema after the War. A Study of the Representation of Verbal Interaction in Films. The study is a linguistic investigation of dialogue in a number of Italian films. It begins to correct for the academic disregard for speech in film studies and the paucity of research on the portrayal of fictional discourse in areas other than drama and literary prose. The purpose ofthe research is to identify the speech patterns that reflect the representation of dialogue in various film genres; the hypothesis is that different discourse styles are indexed to specific film genres, therefore, an accurate definition of genre cannot fail to take into account the plane ofdiscourse, in addition to iconography, narrative and soundtrack. Film discourse is approached from the specific angle ofthe representation of conflict, and the study follows how characters in the various genres disagree and argue along a cline that goes from cooperativeness and solidarity-based conflict to uncooperativeness and disfluency-based confrontation. The choice of this particular angle is based on the conviction that conflict talk often highlights pivotal moments in films and can suggest the diverse patterns ofdiscourse characteristic of vurious genres. Four are the main genres explored in the study, namely comedy, mc1odrama, horror
dialogue genre italian cinema war study representation verbal_interaction study linguistic investigation dialogue number italian film begin correct academic disregard speech film study paucity portrayal fictional discourse area drama literary prose purpose ofthe identify speech pattern reflect representation dialogue various film genre hypothesis different discourse style index specific film genre therefore accurate definition genre fail_take account plane addition iconography narrative film discourse approach specific angle ofthe representation conflict study follow character various genre disagree argue along solidarity based conflict based confrontation choice particular angle base conviction conflict talk often highlight pivotal moment film suggest diverse pattern characteristic genre four_main genre explore study namely comedy