Literary Nomads

Stephen King Meets Shel Silverstein: Formalism and Trope in Story

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25 July 2025

Episode 6.06 - Stephen King Meets Shel Silverstein: Formalism and Trope in Story

What do a children’s story and horror film have in common? Maybe our Suffering Child question, with very different approaches to it. In the meantime, we break down some of the keys to understanding form, genre, trope, medium–and throw some shade of formula, cliches, and stereotypes.

Terms from today’s episode:

Formalism - A literary theory which considers structure before content in considering meaning. Some of its principles:

  • Texts stand alone; consider only the text, not outside factors
  • Close Reading is an active strategy for thinking about how texts are built
  • Defamiliarization (ostranenie) is when something in the text is subverted, changed, varied, to upset our comfort levels
  • Organic Unity is the idea that every single part of a text works towards building the meaning of the whole work

    • Terns of structure discussed today:

    • Form
    • Genre
    • Trope
    • Medium
    • Formula, cliche, and stereotype

      • New to Literary Nomads? Check out episode 5.00 to find out what we’re all about: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords_podcast/an-introduction-and-irony/

      Reading Ahead, Journey 6:

      • Ursula K. Le Guin: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”: https://archive.org/download/the-ones-who-walk-away-from-omelas-ursula-k-leguin/The%20Ones%20Who%20Walk%20Away%20from%20Omelas%20-%20Ursula%20K%20LeGuin.pdf

        • Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/

        CHAPTERS

        00:00     Building Story

        07:50     Opening Theme
        08:23     From What to How
        17:32     Blueprints: Choosing Form
        21:03     Genre: Breaking the Unwritten Contract
        28:16     Pattern Recognition: Tropes
        33:24     Medium: The Material of Story
        38:46     Formula, Cliché, & Stereotypes: The Shadow Side of Formalism
        43:48     The Hideous Bargains
        49:38     Glimpse into the Fantastic
        52:55     Closing Theme and Credits

        ===

        Transcript: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-06-stephen-king-meets-shel-silverstein/

        Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/WKGp1YWrazNZ3TLt8 

        ===

        Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.

        Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.

        Website:  https://waywordsstudio.com

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        CREDITS:

        Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)

        Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski

        USING THIS WORK:

        This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.

        MLA CITATION:

        Chisnell, Steve. “Stephen King Meets Shel Silverstein: Formalism and Trope in Story,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 25 July 2025, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.

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        Literary NomadsBy Steve Chisnell
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