Explaining The Trope Season 2 Episode 7

Trope What, praytell, is a trope? In Episode 7 I address that very question.

The use of the word trope can be confusing because depending upon the context, it can have a different meaning.

Figures of Speech

In literature, it’s one of the major types of figures of speech, such as:

Euphemism, Irony, Hyperbole, Litotes, Metaphor, Metonymy, Allegory, Antanaclasis, Oxymoron, Synecdoche, and Catachresis (Catachreses, pl).

Essentially, a trope is a literary device using any of the above literal or rhetorical terms.

Another use of the term trope is in describing common or recognizable story premises, or plots, such as:

Young person falls in love with older person—May/December romance; reluctant hero saves the day; love triangle; or, a bazillion other familiar story plots.

What It Is

The reason I decided to address this particular word, term, descriptive is that I’ve been hearing it used a lot to describe book plots. In college, I learned that tropes are figures of speech, or using other, more interesting ways to describe something. Needless to say, as soon as I hear someone using the word trope to describe an oft-used story plot, I go right into my head rummaging around for understanding. Surely I’m not the only one confused, I think.

Of course, when brain rummaging failed me, I turned to the internet. Am I more confused than ever? I might be. All kidding aside, I do “get” it. As a therapist friend once said to me when I complained of having two distinct sets of feelings, she said it was known simply as “both things.” That’s how I would now describe the word trope and its current varied use.

Mind you, it’s been a hundred years since I’ve sat in a literature lecture whereas many of the much younger people talking about books and using “trope” differently than I’m used to have likely only been out of college for a few years rather than a hundred. Just my own observation, but it seems as though “trope” has usurped “plot” as the new popular word.

If you want more information on “trope” there’s plenty, and then some, on the internet. You can start HERE. After a few articles, your head will spin. I promise. Nonetheless, I do think having an understanding—even a vague understanding—of what people are talking about when discussing literature can be helpful in your own growth.

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