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DRAMA

Drama is a form of literature using spoken language acted on stage. Explore Aristotle's theories, elements of drama, genres like tragedy, comedy, and tragicomedy, and experimentation in modern drama.

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DRAMA

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  1. DRAMA INTRODUCTION TO HUMANITIES

  2. DRAMA • Drama is a species of literature whose basic medium is spoken language. • Drama can be read, somewhat like a poem or novel. • But the word “drama” comes from the Greek word meaning “act.”

  3. Drama • Drama is spoken language acted, to be produced for public exhibition, usually upon a stage. • Drama as a complete work of art exists in the presentation.

  4. Aristotle and the Elements of Drama • Much of what modern commentators say about drama goes back to theories Aristotle put forth in his Poetics. • His ideas were interpreted as rules. • They interpreted tragedy as a serious action whose consequences reached sometimes as far as the gods.

  5. The rules devised in the eighteenth century (and earlier) insisted on the “unities”: that there be only one plot in a tragedy, • That the action should take place in one locale, that it should be completed in one day, and that the main character should display a unity of behavior.

  6. Aristotle felt that tragedy evoke or ought to evoke two emotions from the audience: • Pity and fear • Pity was sympathy for the tragic hero; • Fear was the awareness that such a fate could be fall anyone.

  7. THE IMITATION OF LIFE • No other art comes closer to life and hence drama, more than any other art. • This led Aristotle to his theory of art as the imitation of nature – nature being life in general not just outdoors.

  8. ELEMENTS OF DRAMA • Drama uses the resources of the theater to show human action in such a way that we gain deeper understanding of human experience. • The basic elements of drama are action, character, setting, and ideas. • Action is the plot or ongoing business of the characters – what they strive for, what they expect to see happen.

  9. Character is either developed or flat, • Either individuated or typed, either psychological or symbolic. • Setting is either established explicitly and reproduced on stage with realistic or expressionist sets, • Or it is hinted at and suggested.

  10. Archetypal drama aims at symbolic or mythic interpretations of experience. • For instance, one’s search for personal identity, since it seems to be a pattern repeated in all ages, can serve as a primary archetypal structure for drama.

  11. GENRES OF DRAMA: TRAGEDY • Carefully structured plots were favored by Aristotle, and are usually essential in tragedies. • But for the best tragedies, according to Aristotle, the action must also arise from the searching of a noble character. • The strengths and flaws of the protagonist • Must be factors contributing to the dramatic outcome.

  12. But when we turn to the great tragedies that most define the genre, we think immediately of great characters: Oedipus; Agamemnon; Prometheus: Hamlet: Macbeth… • In most modern tragedies, such as O’Neil’s Desire Under the Elms and Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the characters still remain at the center of the drama.

  13. COMEDY: OLD AND NEW • Old Comedy is associated with our modern farce, burlesque, and the broad humor and make-believe violence of slapstick. • New Comedy is suave and subtle. • New Comedy developed type characters, such as the gruff and difficult man who turns out to have a hear of gold, the good cop, the bad cop…

  14. TRAGICOMEDY: THE MIXED GENRE • The tragic mask with a downturned mouth, and the comic mask with an upturned mouth hang on the wall of many stages. • If there were a third mask, it would probably have an expression of bewilderment as is someone had just asked a totally unanswerable question. • Mixing the genres of tragedy and comedy in a drama may give such a feeling.

  15. EXPERIMENTAL DRAMA • The last forty years have seen exceptional experimentation in drama in the Western world. • Another important thrust of experimental drama has been to assault the audience.

  16. SUMMARY • The subject matter of drama is the human condition as represented by action. • By emphasizing plot and character as the most important elements of drama, Aristotle helps us understand the priorities of all drama. • Some archetypes seem related to the natural rhythms of the seasons and focus,

  17. Summarycont’d • Comedy has several distinct genres. • Old Comedy often abuses individual characters and revels in broad humor. • New Comedy emphasizes the comedy of manners, a social commentary that often depends on type characters. • Tragicomedy combines both genres to create a third genre. • -30-

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