Language
The use of language is that of words solely originating from individuals. Anna Deavere Smith interviewed individuals and recorded their words, exactly as said. Smith then transcribed their words onto paper. The culmination of Smith’s work is a series of versed monologues that are able to convey both meaning and feeling. Smith tries to transcribe in a style that keeps all of the words and emotions of their authors intact. When read on paper, the words and sentences are broken up, to give a sense of sound of how they gave their interview. This portrays a sense that each character is in deep thought, excited and rushed, and so on during their interviews. This allowed Smith to emulate the characters' speech patterns and vocal rhythms to try to convey the essence of each character.
Read more about this topic: Fires In The Mirror
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“When you’re lying awake with a dismal headache, and repose is
taboo’d by anxiety,
I conceive you may use any language you choose to indulge in without impropriety;”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)
“Theoretically, I grant you, there is no possibility of error in necessary reasoning. But to speak thus “theoretically,” is to use language in a Pickwickian sense. In practice, and in fact, mathematics is not exempt from that liability to error that affects everything that man does.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)