Slice of Life Story
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A slice of life story is a story which has no real plot. Often it has no exposition, no action, no conflict, and no denouement, but an open ending. It usually tries to depict the every-day life of ordinary people. The term slice of life is actually a (more or less) dead metaphor: it often seems as if the author had taken a knife and cut out a slice of the lives of some characters, apparently not bothering at all where the cuts were made.
It has also been defined as an "episode of actual experience represented realistically and with little alteration in a dramatic, fictional, or journalistic work." (cp. [Answers.com]).
See also Vignette (literature) and happy ending.
Examples
- James Joyce, Dubliners (short story collection)
- Jack London, The Sun-Dog Trail (short story)
- Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (comic series)
- Kiyohiko Azuma, Azumanga Daioh (comic series, animated series)
- Friends, the TV series.
- Chris de Burgh, The Traveller (pop song)
- Walter de la Mare, The Listeners (poem)
- Jim Jarmusch, Night on Earth (movie)
- Suzanne Vega, Tom's Diner (pop song)
- Hitoshi Ashinano, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō (comic series)
Weblinks: Texts
- ["The Listeners" by Walter de la Mare (complete text of the poem)]
- ["The Traveller" by Chris de Burgh (song lyrics)]
- ["The Sun-Dog Trail" by Jack London (complete short story)]
- [Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega] (lyrics)
Memorable Quotes
- "I have thought much. I do not know. It is something that happened. It is a picture I remember. It is like looking in at the window and seeing the man writing a letter. They came into my life and they went out of my life, and the picture is as I have said, without beginning, the end without understanding." (from "The Sun-Dog Trail")
- "He said to a boy: saddle me the black, I’ll meet you down below. With this man I must talk, yes with this traveller I’ll go." (from "The Traveller")
- "'Tell them I came, and no one answered, That I kept my word,' he said." (from "The Listeners")
Criticism
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