The Function of Dialogue in Screenwriting: A Narrative Strategies in Contemporary Drama Films

Abstract

This narrative literature review examined how dialogue functions as a core narrative strategy in contemporary drama films. Using research from narratology, pragmatics, screenwriting studies, media industry research, and multimodal discourse analysis, this study mapped the diegetic (exposition and clarity), pragmatic (speech acts, subtext, conflict), and affective (rhythm, tension, immersion) roles of dialogue from 2000 to 2025. Sources were selected for explicit treatment of film dialogue or dialogue-centered narrative strategies; thematic coding organized findings by dialogue functions, narrative techniques (sequencing, point of view, multimodal cohesion), and analytic methods (corpus linguistics, speech act analysis, script analysis, visualization/computational approaches). Results converged on six themes: (1) dialogue as a narrative engine structuring causality and comprehension, (2) multimodality and immersion, including first-person and VR perspectives, (3) speech acts and subtext as drivers of persuasion and conflict, (4) cultural and industrial dimensions shaping authorship, identity, and platform-driven circulation, (5) technological innovation that visualizes, optimizes, and recomposes dialogue as data and (6) pedagogical and moral learning observable in children’s media. Authorial purpose, character interaction, and audience participation are all bridged by conversation, which acts concurrently across textual, visual, and emotive levels, according to the review. With datafication, multilingualism, and transnational production recalibrating the meaning and function of conversation, it suggests avenues for further study in the context of streaming, immersive cinema, and interactive narrative.