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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26192
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26192
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The term "subtext" seems to be used for a least four things each of which is distinct, and only two of which I will suggest are on topic for this site.

1. It is used as a catchall for literary devices such as symbolism, metaphor, etc. This, I would suggest, is just a mistake. Literary devices are a way of telling a story, of creating an image in the reader's mind that relates to the primary story. They are not in themselves subtext, even though they may contribute to the development and expression of a subtext where one exists.

2. A subtext is a broader meaning designed and intended by the author are part of the design of the work. Thus _Oliver Twist_ is a story about a particular boy, but is also a condemnation of the English workhouse system of the time. This criticism is never explicit -- it is sub-textual. Deliberate subtext is on topic here because it is concerned with the writer's attempt to communicate.

3. "Subtext" is used by critics to describe meanings that they believe are created by the writer unintentionally, but which show through in the work, presumably because of some unresolved psychological issue. While I personally consider such readings bogus and the presumption that the critic knows more about what the author means that the author does unsupportable arrogant, this type of subtext is off topic here anyway as it is a question about an existing literary work. Literary works may be cited as examples to help the author deliberately create meaning, but discussion for other purposes belongs elsewhere.

4. "Subtext" is used by another set of critics to describe the meanings that the reader reads into the text that were not intended by the author. This seems an inappropriate use of the word to me, since the meaning is not under the text but behind the readers eye, but again questions relating to his type of subtext should be off topic here, since they don't relate to the author's intention. (Conceivably examples of misreadings of a text could be on topic here as a way to warn writers of the ways in which they may fail to get their meaning across.) 

For purposes of this site, I suggest, the word "subtext" should primarily be taken to refer to the writers deliberate intention and attempt to create a broader meaning behind the individual incidents of a story, since the discussion of other meanings of the term would be off-topic here.

Original score: 9