literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

, the tone of a literary work expresses the writer's attitude toward or feelings about the subject matter and

audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), or ...

. The concept of a work's tone has been argued in the academic context as involving a critique of one's innate emotions: the creator or creators of an artistic piece deliberately push one to rethink the emotional dimensions of one's own life due to the creator or creator's psychological intent, which whoever comes across the piece must then deal with. As the nature of

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

media and other such artistic expressions have evolved over time, the concept of an artwork's tone requiring analysis has been applied to other actions such as

film production Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

. For example, an evaluation of the "

French New Wave The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentat ...

" occurred during the spring of 1974 in the pages of ''

Film Quarterly ''Film Quarterly'' (FQ), published by University of California Press, is a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media. When FQ was launched in 1945 (then called ''Hollywood Quarterly''), it was considered "the first serious ...

'', which had studied particular

directors Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

such as

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...

and

François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...

. The journal noted "the passionate concern for the status of... emotional life" that "pervades the films" they'd made. Highlighting those creative figures, ''Film Quarterly'' reported that the career path of such a filmmaker "treats intimacy, and its opposite, distance, in a unique way" that "focuses on the dialectic between" those contrasts as "they conjugate each other", and so the directors'

social movement A social movement is either a loosely or carefully organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a Social issue, social or Political movement, political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to re ...

"uses intimacy as the ''dominant feeling-tone'' of its films" (emphasis added) thus.

Overview of related ideas

Depending upon the

personality Personality is any person's collection of interrelated behavioral, cognitive, and emotional patterns that comprise a person’s unique adjustment to life. These interrelated patterns are relatively stable, but can change over long time per ...

of the writer and the effect that said individual aims to create, the work released by the writer can be formal or informal, sober or whimsical, assertive or pleading, and straightforward or sly, with the person's specific intents varying. In determining the attitude, mood, or tone of an author, one could examine the specific

diction Diction ( (nom. ), "a saying, expression, word"), in its original meaning, is a writer's or speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a piece of writing such as a poem or story.Crannell (1997) ''Glossary'', p. 406 In its c ...

used. When one writes, images and descriptive phrases can transmit emotions across—guarded optimism, unqualified enthusiasm, objective indifference, resignation, or dissatisfaction. Some other examples of literary tone are: airy, comic, condescending, facetious, funny, heavy, intimate, ironic, light, modest, playful, sad, serious, sinister, solemn, somber, and threatening.

Tone as an intellectual concept

Evaluating the tones of certain works as a matter of intellectual study has been argued in the academic context as involving a critique of one's innate emotions: the creator or creators of an artistic piece deliberately push one to rethink the emotional dimensions of one's own life due to the creator or creator's psychological intent, which whoever comes across the piece must then deal with. As the nature of

media and other such artistic expressions have evolved over time, the concept of an artwork's tone requiring analysis has involved cultural efforts such as

. For example, an evaluation of the "

" occurred during the spring of 1974 in the pages of ''

'', which had commented upon particular

such as

and Francois Truffaut. The journal noted "the passionate concern for the status of... emotional life" that "pervades the films" they'd made. Highlighting those creative figures, ''Film Quarterly'' reported that the career path of such a filmmaker "treats intimacy, and its opposite, distance, in a unique way" that "focuses on the dialectic between" those contrasts as "they conjugate each other", and so the directors'

"uses intimacy as the ''dominant feeling-tone'' of its films" (emphasis added) thus.

Difference from mood

Tone and mood are not the same, although they are frequently confused. The mood of a piece of literature is the feeling or atmosphere created by the work, or, said slightly differently, how the work makes the reader feel. Mood is produced most effectively through the use of setting, theme, voice and tone, while tone is how the author feels about something.

Usage

All pieces of literature, which includes even official documents and media of a technical nature, have some sort of tone. Authors create tone through the use of various other literary elements, such as ''diction'' or word choice; ''syntax'', the grammatical arrangement of words in a text for effect; ''imagery'', or vivid appeals to the senses; ''details'', facts that are included or omitted; and ''figurative language'', the comparison of seemingly unrelated things for sub-textual purposes. While now used to discuss literature, the term tone was originally applied solely to music. This appropriated word has come to represent attitudes and feelings a speaker (in poetry), a narrator (in fiction), or an author (in non-literary prose) has towards the subject, situation, and/or the intended audience. The speaker or narrator should not be confused with the author, and attitudes and feelings of the speaker or narrator should not be confused with those of the author. In general, the tone of a piece only refers to attitude of the author if writing is non-literary in nature. In many cases, the tone of a work may change and even clearly shift in a fundamental way as the speaker being described in a detached fashion (or the narrator being listened to) has his or her perspective on a particular subject evolve throughout the piece. For example, novels with a horror theme can have previously calm, uninvolved individuals coming upon an extreme situation, such as violence involving the

supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

, growing more and more passionate in a way that turns the entire writing increasingly emotional. Official and technical documentation tends to employ a formal tone throughout the piece.

Setting tone

Authors set a tone in literature by conveying emotions/feelings through words. The way a person feels about an idea/concept, event, or another person can be quickly determined through facial expressions, gestures and in the tone of voice used. In literature an author sets the tone through word choice that create imagery, perspective, tone, subject matter, and more. The possible tones are bounded only by the number of possible

emotion Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...

s a human being can have. Diction and

syntax In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...

often dictate what the author's (or character's) attitude toward his subject is at the time. An example: "Charlie surveyed the classroom but it was really his mother congratulating himself for snatching the higher test grade, the smug smirk on his face growing brighter and brighter as he confirmed the inferiority of his peers." The tone here is one of arrogance; the quip "inferiority of his peers" shows Charlie's belief in his own prowess. The words "surveyed" and "congratulating himself" show Charlie as seeing himself better than the rest of his class. The diction, including the word "snatching", gives the reader a mental picture of someone quickly and effortlessly grabbing something, which proves once again Charlie's pride in himself. The "smug

smirk A smirk is a smile evoking insolence, scorn, or offensive smugness, falling into the category of what Desmond Morris described as Deformed-compliment Signals. A smirk may also be an affected, ingratiating smile, as in Mr Bennet's description of ...

" provides a facial imagery of Charlie's pride.

Notes

References

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