Perspectives

Literary perspective

The short story “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love” by Raymond Carver belongs to the movement called dirty realism. Dirty realism is a literary movement which explores the mundane and sometimes ignored aspects of daily life. The short story “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love” has several features which place it in this literary movement.

First of all, the story presents a mundane event: four friends gather around for drinks before going to dinner. Secondly, their dialogue is realistic and spontaneous, and the characters use everyday language. Then, Carver focuses on some unpleasant matters, such as the issue of domestic abuse, which is presented in Terri and Ed’s story. Another characteristic of dirty realism is the focus o...