Tropedia

  • Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
  • All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
  • All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO SelfCloak. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.

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Tropedia
Policy shortcuts:
  • Tropedia:LITCRIT
  • Tropedia:LC

Providing Literary Criticism is one of the main purposes of Tropedia's existence. This fills part #1 of The Troper's Code -- we exist to educate.

The Other Wiki states that literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Our own definition extends to any work of creative story telling in any media, whether it be filmed, printed, broadcasted, streamed, sung, or ansibled.

Literary Study
The most common form of study on this site is to identify constituent elements of creative works that are common with other works. We call these patterns of storytelling "tropes". While classifying and deconstructing is a core of what we do here, there's a lot more.
Literary Evaluation
Any creative work is subject to review, commonly done so on a /Reviews subpage. Common Audience Reactions should also be catalogued, as a work can never truly be extricated from the culture from whence it came and the audience to which it goes.
Literary Interpretation
Analysis a fiction at a higher level than tropes, interpretation looks past the tropes used and instead to the work as a whole. Seeks to identify the Central Theme, the Aesop, and metatextual stuff like author intent. A part of our site that is currently lacking, but is highly encouraged. Often available on /Analysis subpages, but relevant everywhere.
Talking about the reason that a particular trope is used is another form of analysis, and is also much encouraged.
Literary Stuffiness
Not necessary. See Tropedia:Be Creative.

Academic Freedom

Policy shortcuts:
  • Tropedia:AF
  • Tropedia:ACAFREE

To support free exchange of ideas in our literary criticism, we have a policy of Academic Freedom. In terms of our site, this means that editors may discuss any topic in the course of criticism of creative works. The site administration will not censor for politics, prudery or prejudice. Period. (However, we do still have to abide by the laws of the United States of America and the Netherlands, where the wiki's hosting hardware is located.)

This is not carte blanche to write literally anything on the site. If it's not on the topic of creative works, it never belonged on the site in the first place. And a long gushing praise of your favorite anime is not the same thing as thoughtful analysis. Lurid details are not banned per se, but they may or may not be relevant.

Academic freedom on Tropedia is about protecting ideas, and encouraging a fair discussion. The ability to present opposing points of view is guaranteed by Tropedia:There is No One True Way. While we are not an academic institution, we engage in the academic activity of literary criticism, and that's enough for us.

Rights come with responsibilities connected to them, and the right to Academic Freedom is no exception. The responsibility connected with Academic Freedom is to take ownership of one's statements and accept the consequences for making them. On this wiki, this means that anonymous editing is a privilege, not a right; spammers have made it necessary for us to require people to create accounts to edit here.


This page is part of the The Troper's Code, and a core policy of the site.