"The text."

An exchange between the two protagonists in Whit Stillman's 1994 film "Barcelona," which I was transcribing today for an article I'm working on, is worth sharing, and maybe worth putting on every syllabus from here on out:

Fred: “One of the things that keeps cropping up is this about subtext: plays, novels, songs, they all have a subtext, which I take to mean a hidden message or import of some kind. So subtext, we know, but what do you call the message or meaning that’s right there on the surface, completely open and obvious. They never talk about that. What do you call what’s above the subtext?”

Ted: “The text.”

Fred: "... O.K., that's right, but they never talk about that."