Several works on film theory and screenwriting practice take up the question of repetition within narrative. However, few if any, have articulated theories about the relationship between the repetition of the words that comprise the screenplay itself and repetition of the themes that lend coherence to the narrative. In this study we address this gap in the screenwriting and film literature. Specifically, we analyze repetition of words and themes in the screenplay of Sunshine Cleaning , a critically-acclaimed independent film. Based on our survey of the literature, we expect and we find several varieties of repetition among words associated with the major themes in Sunshine Cleaning . This repetition includes but is not limited to polyptoton (words formed by inflections, declensions, and conjugations of a common stem), homonymy , paregmenon (words sharing a common derivation), and compounding (words formed by combining two or more words). We further expect and find that the repetition of words linked to themes is extensive and found in the large majority of the scenes of the screenplay. Finally, we expect and find that words associated with the themes are repeated far more frequently than in a random sample of screenplays contained within the Corpus of Contemporary American English. We conclude the paper with a discussion of our study’s implications for the art and craft of screenwriting.
Andrew, J. D. (1971). The values of close analysis. Cinema Journal, 11, 48-52. doi:10.2307/1225348
Auerbach, J. (2000). Chasing film narrative: Repetition, recursion, and the body in early cinema. Critical Inquiry, 26, 798-820. doi:10.1086/448992
Axelrod, M., & Gomez de Garcia, J. (2007). Repetition in Apachean narrative discourse: From discourse structure to language learning in morphologically complex languages. Language, Meaning and Society, 1, 107-142.
Bellour, R. (1979). Cine-repetitions. Screen, 20, 65-72. doi:10.1093/screen/20.2.65
Bordwell, D., & Thompson, K. (2008). Film art: An introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Botvin, G., & Sutton-Smith, B. (1977). The development of structural complexity in children’s fantasy narratives. Developmental Psychology, 13, 377-388. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.13.4.377
Briefel, A. (2009). What some ghosts don’t know: Spectral incognizance and the horror film. Narrative, 17, 95-110.
Brody, J. (1986). Repetition as a rhetorical and conversational device in Tojolabal (Mayan). International Journal of American Linguistics, 52, 255-274. doi:10.1086/466022
Browne, N. (1975). The spectator-in-the-Text: The rhetoric of stagecoach. Film Quarterly, 29, 26-38. doi:10.2307/1211746
Bullinger, E. (2003). Figures of speech used in the Bible: Explained and illustrated. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Capel, J. (1994). Matthew’s narrative web: Over, and over, and over again. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press.
Culbert, T. (1963). Narrative technique in Beowulf. Neophilologus, 47, 50-61. doi:10.1007/BF01514944
Cunningham, K. (2008). The soul of screenwriting: On writing, dramatic truth, and knowing yourself. New York: Continuum.
Davies, M. (2009). The 385+ million word corpus of contemporary American English (1990-present). International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 14, 159-90. doi:10.1075/ijcl.14.2.02dav
Davies, M. (2012). Corpus of American contemporary English. http://www.americancorpus.org/
Dethridge, L. (2003). Writing your screenplay. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
Doherty, T. (2007). Hollywood’s censor: Joseph I. Breen & the Production Code Administration. New York: Columbia University Press.
El-Shamy, H. (1996). Review: Story-telling techniques in The Arabian Nights by David Pinault. Asian Folklore Studies, 55, 186-189. doi:10.2307/1178883
Fahy, T. (2000). Iteration as a form of narrative control in Gertrude Stein’s The Good Anna. Style, 34, 25-35.
Field, S. (1998). The screenwriter’s problem solver. New York: Dell Publishing.
Field, S. (2005). Screenplay: The foundations of screenwriting. New York: Delta.
Grindon, L. (1996). Body and soul: The structure of meaning in the boxing film genre. Cinema Journal, 35, 54-69.
Harper, D. (2012). Online etymological dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/
Higgins, S. (2008). Suspenseful situations: Melodramatic narrative and the contemporary action film. Cinema Journal, 47, 74-96. doi:10.1353/cj.2008.0010
Holley, M. (2007). Sunshine cleaning. http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Sunshine-Cleaning.html
Hoover, David (2002). Frequent word sequences and statistical stylistics. Literary and Linguistic Computing, 17, 157-80. doi:10.1093/llc/17.2.157
Horton, A. (2000). Writing the character-centered screenplay, updated and expanded edition. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Lacassin, F. (1972). The comic strip and film language. Film Quarterly, 26, 11-23. doi:10.2307/1211407
Langford, B. (2005). Film genre: Hollywood and beyond. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
The Literary Encyclopedia Concise Glossary (2012). http://www.litencyc.com/glossary_search.php?term=theme&Submit=Search
Lord, A. (1960). The singer of tales. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Luthi, M. (1982). The European folktale: Form and nature. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Mehring, M. (1990) Screenplay: The blend of film form and content. Boston, MA: Focal Press.
Moore, L., & Davis, B. (2002). Quilting narrative: Using repetition techniques to help elderly communicators. Geriatric Nursing, 23, 262-266. doi:10.1067/mgn.2002.128786
Naddaff, S. (1991). Magic time: The movement and meaning of narrative repetition. In S. Naddaff (Ed.), Arabesque: Narrative structure and the aesthetics of repetition in the 1001 nights (pp. 89-108). Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Nochimson, M. (1997). Amnesia “R” us: The retold melodrama, soap opera, and the representation of reality. Film Quarterly, 50, 27-38. doi:10.2307/1213614
Norman, M. (2007). What happens next: A history of American screenwriting. New York: Random House.
Parker, P. (2002). The art and science of screenwriting. Bristol, UK: Intellect Books.
Pinault, D. (1992). An Introduction to the Arabian nights. In D. Pinault (Ed.), Story-telling techniques in the Arabian nights (pp. 16-30). Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill.
Reich, A. (2006). The narrative functions of repetition in John Milton’s Paradise Regained. Lewiston, NY: Mellen Press.
Robson, K. (1983). The crystal formation: Narrative structure in Grey Gardens, Cinema Journal, 22, 42-53. doi:10.2307/1225218
Sadkin, D. (1974). Theme and structure: The last tango untangled. Literature/Film Quarterly, 2, 162-173.
Seger, L. (2010). Making a good script great. Beverly Hills, CA: Silman-James Press.
Seydou, C. (1983). A few reflections on narrative structures of epic texts: A case example of Bambara and Fulani epics. Research in African Literature, 14, 312-331.
Shostak, D. (1995). Plot as repetition: John Irving’s narrative experiments. Critique, 37, 51-70. doi:10.1080/00111619.1995.9936480
Smith, S. (2008). Lip and love: subversive repetition in the pastiche films of tracey Moffatt. Screen, 49, 209-215. doi:10.1093/screen/hjn031
Somsonge, B. (1992). Kui narrative repetition. Mon-Khmer Studies, 22, 149-162.
Sprague, C. (1987). Rereading Doris Lessing: Narrative patterns of doubling and repetition. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Suleiman, S. (1983). Authoritarian fictions: The ideological novel as a literary genre. New York: Columbia University Press.
Toolan, M. (2008). Narrative progression in the short story: First steps in corpus stylistic approach. Narrative, 16, 105-120. doi:10.1353/nar.0.0000
Turner, J. (1977). Little big man, the novel and the film: A study of narrative structure. Literature/Film Quarterly, 5, 154-163.
Viders, S., Storey, G. C., & Martinez, B. (2006). 10 steps to creating memorable characters. New York: Lone Eagle.
Walsh, J. (2001). Style and structure in Biblical Hebrew narrative. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press.
Watkins, C. (2000). The American heritage dictionary of Indo-European roots. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Yemenici, A. (2002). Categories and functions of repetition in Turkish oral narratives. Bo?azi?i University Journal of Education, 19, 13-35.
Yen, A. (1973). On Vladimir Propp and Albert B. Lord: Their theoretical differences. Journal of American Folklore, 86, 161-166. doi:10.2307/539749
Yen, A. (1974). Thematic-patterns in Japanese folktales: A search for meanings. Asian Folklore Studies, 33, 2-19. doi:10.2307/1177548