Il reframing argomentativo su istituzioni e valori nella pratica di sceneggiatura

The literary theory by W.C. Booth highlights that storytelling is a form of argumentative discourse about values. In order to create engagement in a story it is essential to guide the reader towards a judgment regarding the values at stake. For this purpose, authors typically use specific rhetorical and narrative devices. This is particularly true in films, where the techniques used to make the audience share the moral vision developed through the story are at the very core of the craft of screenwriting. Based on this premise, the article focuses on the main dramaturgical devices used in a film to affirm the theme. Firstly, it is stressed that screenwriters consider theme as the connection between two values which are crucial for the evolution of the character towards his/her true self. It is then argued that it is possible to consider the fundamental way by which a script affirms its theme – a dilemmatic choice made by the protagonist – as an act of reframing, in the perspective of George Lakoff’s cognitive linguistics. The semantic and axiological competence of both the protagonist and the viewer gains a new structure, provoking the strongest emotion in the film, through the key narrative twist. The article shows how this ultimate reframing is set up by many other less powerful acts of the same type in the dialogues between characters throughout the story. The conclusion considers how it is possible to see drama as an exploration towards the true meaning of values and the importance each of them should have in comparison to competing others.