Subtext

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the programming language, see Subtext programming language.

For the blog publishing software, see Subtext Weblog Software.

Subtext is content of a book, play, film or television series which is not announced explicitly by the characters (or author) but is implicit or becomes something understood by the reader / viewer as the production unfolds. Subtext can also refer to the thoughts and motives of the characters which are only covered in an aside. Subtext can also be used to imply controversial subjects without specifically alienating people from the fiction, often through use of metaphor.

H.G. Wells's The Time Machine, for example, use the Morlocks and Eloi as metaphors for exploitative capitalists and exploited workers respectively.

Examples of subtext often include the sexuality of the characters. For example the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle in Xena: Warrior Princess, which was left ambiguous throughout the series although some fans believed them to be lovers, or the nature of the relationship between the teachers in the film version of Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour which was based on an actual case in Scotland but toned down for film.

A scene in Woody Allen's movie Annie Hall, in which subtitles explain the characters' inner thoughts during an apparently innocent conversation, is an example of the subtext of a scene being made explicit.

In the episode "My Best Friend's Bottom" of 'British TV comedy Coupling, Captain Subtext is a tool used in the narrative to explicitly make the viewers aware of the subtextual message in the dialogue. Of course the dialogue and the subtext has been deliberately made humorous.