Slice of life

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the genre of fiction. For other uses, see A Slice of Life.

Slice of life is a depiction of mundane experiences in art and entertainment.[1] In theater, slice of life refers to naturalism, while in literary parlance it is a narrative technique in which a seemingly arbitrary sequence of events in a character's life is presented, often lacking plot development, conflict and exposition, as well as often having an open ending.

Film and theater

In theatrical parlance, the term slice of life refers to a

French phrase tranche de vie, credited to the French playwright Jean Jullien (1854–1919).[2]

Jullien introduced the term not long after a staging of his play The Serenade, as noted by Wayne S. Turney in his essay "Notes on Naturalism in the Theatre":

The Serenade was introduced by the

morally bankrupt characters who seem to be respectable, "smiling, smiling, damned villains..." Jullien gave us the famous apothegm defining naturalism in his The Living Theatre (1892): "A play is a slice of life put onstage with art." He goes on to say that "...our purpose is not to create laughter, but thought." He felt that the story of a play does not end with the curtain, which is "only an arbitrary interruption of the action which leaves the spectator free to speculate about what goes on beyond your expectation..."[3]

During the 1950s, the phrase was commonly used in critical reviews of live television dramas, notably teleplays by JP Miller, Paddy Chayefsky[4] and Reginald Rose.[5] At that time, it was sometimes used synonymously with the term "kitchen sink realism", adopted from British films and theatre.

In 2017, screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identified slice-of-life films as one of eleven super-genres in his screenwriters' taxonomy, claiming that all feature-length narrative films can be classified by these super-genres. The other ten super-genres are: action, crime, fantasy, horror, romance, science fiction, sports, thriller, war and western.[6] Williams identifies the following films as some examples of films in the slice-of-life super-genre: The Station Agent, Boyhood, Captain Fantastic, Fences, Moonlight and Waitress.[7] According to his taxonomy, drama and comedy are identified as film "types", not super-genres.[7]

Literature

In literary parlance, the term "slice of life" refers to a

dénouement, but rather has an open ending. A work that focuses on a minute and faithful reproduction of some bit of reality, without selection, organization, or judgment, and where every small detail is presented with scientific fidelity, is an example of the "slice of life" novel.[9] This is demonstrated in the case of Guy de Maupassant's novel A Woman's Life, which told the story of a woman who transformed an unrequited love for her husband into a pathological affection towards her son.[10]

In the United States, slice of life stories were given particular emphasis by the

social reform.[13]

Anime and manga

Main category: Slice of life anime and manga
Further information: List of slice of life anime

Slice of life anime and manga are narratives "without fantastical aspects, which [take] place in a recognisable, everyday setting, such as a suburban high school, and which [focus] on human relationships that are often romantic in nature."[14] The genre favors "the creation of emotional ties with the characters."[15] The popularity of slice of life anime started to increase in the mid-1980s.[14] Masayuki Nishida writes that slice of life anime and manga can still involve elements of fantasy or a fantastical world: "Fantasy is sometimes used as a means to express the “reality” of human beings under certain possible conditions."[16] Robin E. Brenner's 2007 book Understanding Manga and Anime holds that in anime and manga, "slice of life" is a genre that is more akin to melodrama than drama, bordering on absurd due to the large numbers of dramatic and comedic events in very short spans. The author compares it to teen dramas such as Dawson's Creek or The O.C. This genre claims a large section of the Japanese manga market and usually focuses on school and interpersonal relationships.[17]

One subgenre of slice of life in anime and manga is kūki-kei (空気系, "air type"), also called nichijō-kei (日常系, "everyday type"). In this genre, "descriptions of deep personal relationships or fully fledged romantic relationships are deliberately eliminated from the story in order to tell a light, non-serious story that focuses on the everyday lives and conversations of the bishōjo characters."[18] This relies on a "specificity of place," as well as a "peaceful, heartwarming sense of daily life."[19] The nichijō-kei genre developed from yonkoma manga, and includes works like Azumanga Daioh, K-On!, and Hidamari Sketch.[20] Takayoshi Yamamura argues that the rise in popularity of this subgenre in the mid-2000s enabled the increasing popularity of media tourism to locations featured in anime.[18]

Stevie Suan writes that slice of life anime such as Azumanga Daioh often involve exaggerated versions of the "conventionalized expressions" of the medium, such as "white circles for eyes in times of trouble, shining, vibrant big eyes to depict overflowing emotion, sweat drops, animal teeth, and simplistic human rendering."[21]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 0-19-511227-X
    .
  2. ^ "Slice of life". Random House Unabridged Dictionary. 2006.
  3. ^ Turney, Wayne S. "Notes on Naturalism in the Theatre". wayneturney.20m.com. Archived from the original on 2008-05-14.
  4. ^ Gottfried, Martin. All His Jazz, Da Capo, 2003.
  5. ^ "Dowler, Kevin. "Reginald Rose". Museum of Broadcast Communications". Archived from the original on 2006-04-23. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
  6. OCLC 993983488
    . P. 21
  7. ^
    OCLC 993983488
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-8130-2432-5
    .
  9. ISBN 978-0-8166-5885-5
    .
  10. ISBN 0-299-20870-2
    .
  11. ^
    ISBN 0-7619-2757-3
    .
  12. ^
    ISBN 978-1-61530-234-5
    .
  13. ISBN 978-1-305-95470-0
    .
  14. ^
    OCLC 953459173
    .
  15. S2CID 213535272
    .
  16. ISSN 2586-937X
    .
  17. ISBN 978-1-59158-332-5
    .
  18. ^
    S2CID 143690685
    .
  19. S2CID 213737486
    .
  20. ^ Tanaka, Motoko (29 July 2014). "Trends of Fiction in 2000s Japanese Pop Culture". Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies. 14 (2).
  21. OCLC 844939529
    .

External links

Look up slice of life in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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