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Slice of life

December 18, 2023

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 edit

In theatrical parlance, the term slice of life refers to a naturalistic representation of real life, sometimes used as an adjective, as in "a play with 'slice of life' dialogues". The term originated between 1890 and 1895 as a calque from the 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 Théâtre Libre in 1887. It is a prime example of rosserie, that is, plays dealing with corrupt, 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 edit

In literary parlance, the term "slice of life" refers to a storytelling technique that presents a seemingly arbitrary sample of a character's life, which often lacks a coherent plot, conflict, or ending.[8] The story may have little plot progress and often has no exposition, conflict, or 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 Chicago school at the end of the 19th century, a period when the novel and social sciences became different systems of discourse.[11] These produced literary texts by researcher-authors that were written to represent the subject's stories and sentiment-free social realism using the language of ordinary people.[11] It formed part of the late 19th- and early 20th-century naturalism movement in literature, which was inspired by the adaptation of principles and methods of social sciences such as the Darwinian view of nature.[12] The movement was an extension of realism, presenting the faithful representation of reality without moral judgment.[12] Some authors, particularly playwrights, used it by focusing on the "underbelly of life" to expose social ills and repressive social codes with the aim of shocking the audience and motivating them towards social reform.[13]

Anime and manga edit

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 edit

References edit

  1. ^ Jewell, Elizabeth J.; Abate, Frank R., eds. (September 2001). "Slice of Life". The New Oxford American Dictionary (First ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511227-X.
  2. ^ "Slice of life". Random House Unabridged Dictionary. 2006.
  3. ^ Turney, Wayne S. . wayneturney.20m.com. Archived from the original on 2008-05-14.
  4. ^ Gottfried, Martin. All His Jazz, Da Capo, 2003.
  5. ^ . Archived from the original on 2006-04-23. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
  6. ^ Williams, Eric R. (2017). The screenwriters taxonomy : a roadmap to collaborative storytelling. New York, NY: Routledge Studies in Media Theory and Practice. ISBN 978-1-315-10864-3. OCLC 993983488. P. 21
  7. ^ a b Williams, Eric R. (2017). The screenwriters taxonomy : a roadmap to collaborative storytelling. New York, NY: Routledge Studies in Media Theory and Practice. ISBN 978-1-315-10864-3. OCLC 993983488.
  8. ^ Stuart Eddy Baker (2002). Bernard Shaw's remarkable religion: a faith that fits the facts. University Press of Florida. pp. 83–84. ISBN 978-0-8130-2432-5.
  9. ^ Walcutt, Charles (1966). American Literary Naturalism, a Divided Stream. St. Paul, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-8166-5885-5.
  10. ^ Lehan, Richard (2005). Realism and Naturalism: The Novel in an Age of Transition. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 193. ISBN 0-299-20870-2.
  11. ^ a b Denzin, Norman; Lincoln, Yvonna (2005). The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. pp. 16. ISBN 0-7619-2757-3.
  12. ^ a b Augustyn, Adam (2010). American Literature from the 1850s to 1945. New York: Britannica Educational Publishing. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-61530-234-5.
  13. ^ Downs, William; Wright, Lou Anne; Ramsey, Erik (2016). The Art of Theatre: Then and Now. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. p. 372. ISBN 978-1-305-95470-0.
  14. ^ a b Rivera Rusca, Renato (2016). "The Changing Role of Manga and Anime Magazines in the Japanese Animation Industry". In Pasfield-Neofitou, Sarah E.; Sell, Cathy (eds.). Manga vision : cultural and communicative perspectives. Clayton, Vic.: Monash University Publishing. pp. 61–62. ISBN 978-1-925377-07-1. OCLC 953459173.
  15. ^ Hernández‐rogelio, Manuel generenze; scot (December 2019). "Otaku Tourists Out of Japan: Fictionality , Shared Memories, and the Role of National Branding in the Japanese Pilgrimages of Anime Fans in the United Kingdom". The Journal of Popular Culture. 52 (6): 1524. doi:10.1111/jpcu.12871. ISSN 0022-3840. S2CID 213535272.
  16. ^ Nishida, Masayuki (2016-06-06). "Locality in Japanese Animation: Transboundary Interactions between the Animation Tamayura and Takehara City in Hiroshima, Japan". JSN Journal. 6 (1): 29. ISSN 2586-937X.
  17. ^ Brenner, Robin (2007). Understanding Manga and Anime. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-59158-332-5.
  18. ^ a b Yamamura, Takayoshi (2015-01-02). "Contents tourism and local community response: Lucky star and collaborative anime-induced tourism in Washimiya". Japan Forum. 27 (1): 60–61. doi:10.1080/09555803.2014.962567. ISSN 0955-5803. S2CID 143690685.
  19. ^ Clyde, Deirdre (2020-01-02). "Pilgrimage and prestige: American anime fans and their travels to Japan". Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change. 18 (1): 63. doi:10.1080/14766825.2020.1707464. ISSN 1476-6825. 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. ^ Suan, Stevie (2013). The anime paradox : patterns and practices through the lens of traditional Japanese theater. Leiden: Global Oriental. p. 252. ISBN 978-90-04-22215-1. OCLC 844939529.

External links edit

 
Look up slice of life in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  • "Film View; Mining the Eloquence of Ordinary People" by Vincent Canby. The New York Times, December 3, 1989

December 18, 2023
slice, life, this, article, about, genre, fiction, other, uses, slice, life, depiction, mundane, experiences, entertainment, theater, slice, life, refers, naturalism, while, literary, parlance, narrative, technique, which, seemingly, arbitrary, sequence, event. 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 Contents 1 Film and theater 2 Literature 3 Anime and manga 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksFilm and theater editIn theatrical parlance the term slice of life refers to a naturalistic representation of real life sometimes used as an adjective as in a play with slice of life dialogues The term originated between 1890 and 1895 as a calque from the 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 Theatre Libre in 1887 It is a prime example of rosserie that is plays dealing with corrupt 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 editIn literary parlance the term slice of life refers to a storytelling technique that presents a seemingly arbitrary sample of a character s life which often lacks a coherent plot conflict or ending 8 The story may have little plot progress and often has no exposition conflict or denouement 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 Chicago school at the end of the 19th century a period when the novel and social sciences became different systems of discourse 11 These produced literary texts by researcher authors that were written to represent the subject s stories and sentiment free social realism using the language of ordinary people 11 It formed part of the late 19th and early 20th century naturalism movement in literature which was inspired by the adaptation of principles and methods of social sciences such as the Darwinian view of nature 12 The movement was an extension of realism presenting the faithful representation of reality without moral judgment 12 Some authors particularly playwrights used it by focusing on the underbelly of life to expose social ills and repressive social codes with the aim of shocking the audience and motivating them towards social reform 13 Anime and manga editMain 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 kuki 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 editIyashikei Mimesis Mumblecore Vignette literature American Splendor Costumbrismo In medias res Seinfeld King of the Hill Joe Pera Talks With YouReferences edit Jewell Elizabeth J Abate Frank R eds September 2001 Slice of Life The New Oxford American Dictionary First ed Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 511227 X Slice of life Random House Unabridged Dictionary 2006 Turney Wayne S Notes on Naturalism in the Theatre wayneturney 20m com Archived from the original on 2008 05 14 Gottfried Martin All His Jazz Da Capo 2003 Dowler Kevin Reginald Rose Museum of Broadcast Communications Archived from the original on 2006 04 23 Retrieved 2008 06 20 Williams Eric R 2017 The screenwriters taxonomy a roadmap to collaborative storytelling New York NY Routledge Studies in Media Theory and Practice ISBN 978 1 315 10864 3 OCLC 993983488 P 21 a b Williams Eric R 2017 The screenwriters taxonomy a roadmap to collaborative storytelling New York NY Routledge Studies in Media Theory and Practice ISBN 978 1 315 10864 3 OCLC 993983488 Stuart Eddy Baker 2002 Bernard Shaw s remarkable religion a faith that fits the facts University Press of Florida pp 83 84 ISBN 978 0 8130 2432 5 Walcutt Charles 1966 American Literary Naturalism a Divided Stream St Paul Minnesota University of Minnesota Press p 21 ISBN 978 0 8166 5885 5 Lehan Richard 2005 Realism and Naturalism The Novel in an Age of Transition Madison University of Wisconsin Press p 193 ISBN 0 299 20870 2 a b Denzin Norman Lincoln Yvonna 2005 The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research Thousand Oaks CA SAGE pp 16 ISBN 0 7619 2757 3 a b Augustyn Adam 2010 American Literature from the 1850s to 1945 New York Britannica Educational Publishing p 71 ISBN 978 1 61530 234 5 Downs William Wright Lou Anne Ramsey Erik 2016 The Art of Theatre Then and Now Boston MA Cengage Learning p 372 ISBN 978 1 305 95470 0 a b Rivera Rusca Renato 2016 The Changing Role of Manga and Anime Magazines in the Japanese Animation Industry In Pasfield Neofitou Sarah E Sell Cathy eds Manga vision cultural and communicative perspectives Clayton Vic Monash University Publishing pp 61 62 ISBN 978 1 925377 07 1 OCLC 953459173 Hernandez rogelio Manuel generenze scot December 2019 Otaku Tourists Out of Japan Fictionality Shared Memories and the Role of National Branding in the Japanese Pilgrimages of Anime Fans in the United Kingdom The Journal of Popular Culture 52 6 1524 doi 10 1111 jpcu 12871 ISSN 0022 3840 S2CID 213535272 Nishida Masayuki 2016 06 06 Locality in Japanese Animation Transboundary Interactions between the Animation Tamayura and Takehara City in Hiroshima Japan JSN Journal 6 1 29 ISSN 2586 937X Brenner Robin 2007 Understanding Manga and Anime Westport CT Greenwood Publishing Group p 112 ISBN 978 1 59158 332 5 a b Yamamura Takayoshi 2015 01 02 Contents tourism and local community response Lucky star and collaborative anime induced tourism in Washimiya Japan Forum 27 1 60 61 doi 10 1080 09555803 2014 962567 ISSN 0955 5803 S2CID 143690685 Clyde Deirdre 2020 01 02 Pilgrimage and prestige American anime fans and their travels to Japan Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change 18 1 63 doi 10 1080 14766825 2020 1707464 ISSN 1476 6825 S2CID 213737486 Tanaka Motoko 29 July 2014 Trends of Fiction in 2000s Japanese Pop Culture Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies 14 2 Suan Stevie 2013 The anime paradox patterns and practices through the lens of traditional Japanese theater Leiden Global Oriental p 252 ISBN 978 90 04 22215 1 OCLC 844939529 External links edit nbsp Look up slice of life in Wiktionary the free dictionary Film View Mining the Eloquence of Ordinary People by Vincent Canby The New York Times December 3 1989 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Slice of life amp oldid 1189864799, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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