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    11 Drama As A Literary Genre

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    Rota Alice
    The document discusses the key features of drama as a literary genre. It describes the typical structure of plays, including acts, scenes, prologues and epilogues. It also outlines other common elements of drama like plots, settings, characters, dialogue, soliloquies, stage directions and dramatic techniques. Language features in drama can include various forms like everyday speech, poetry and prose.

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    11 Drama As A Literary Genre

    Uploaded by

    Rota Alice
    48 views11 pages
    The document discusses the key features of drama as a literary genre. It describes the typical structure of plays, including acts, scenes, prologues and epilogues. It also outlines other common elements of drama like plots, settings, characters, dialogue, soliloquies, stage directions and dramatic techniques. Language features in drama can include various forms like everyday speech, poetry and prose.

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    11 Drama as a Literary Genre

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    The document discusses the key features of drama as a literary genre. It describes the typical structure of plays, including acts, scenes, prologues and epilogues. It also outlines other common elements of drama like plots, settings, characters, dialogue, soliloquies, stage directions and dramatic techniques. Language features in drama can include various forms like everyday speech, poetry and prose.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    48 views11 pages

    11 Drama As A Literary Genre

    Uploaded by

    Rota Alice
    The document discusses the key features of drama as a literary genre. It describes the typical structure of plays, including acts, scenes, prologues and epilogues. It also outlines other common elements of drama like plots, settings, characters, dialogue, soliloquies, stage directions and dramatic techniques. Language features in drama can include various forms like everyday speech, poetry and prose.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    of 11

    Drama as a literary genre

    The features of a dramatic text


    Compact Performer Shaping Ideas
    Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,
    Margaret Layton © 2021
    Drama as a literary genre

    1. The structure
    A play consists of a number of acts divided into scenes.
    All Shakespearian plays are made up of five acts:

    • Act 1: introduction;
    • Act 2: development;
    • Act 3: crisis or turning point;
    • Act 4: complications;
    • Act 5: denouement = the resolving of all difficulties.

    Compact Performer Shaping Ideas


    Drama as a literary genre

    1. The structure
    Elizabethan tragedies:
    •are generally introduced by a prologue,
    spoken by the chorus

    •provides information about the main character /


    the subject of the play

    •often end with an epilogue

    - requests applause
    - is usually played by a central character
    Compact Performer Shaping Ideas
    Drama as a literary genre

    2. The plot and the setting


    • The plot the story-line of a play

    • The sub-plot a secondary plot. It usually


    mirrors the themes of the
    main plot but presents them
    from a different perspective
    • Place and time can be inferred both from the dialogue and
    the stage directions

    An open place.
    Thunder and lightning.
    (W. Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 1)

    Compact Performer Shaping Ideas


    Drama as a literary genre

    3. Stage directions
    • Stage directions are the instructions a playwright
    gives to the director and the actors about how a play
    should be staged.
    • They provide information about
    1. the setting;
    2. the characters’ actions and movements;
    3. the style of acting.

    Exeunt all but TITANIA [and the sentinel]. Enter Oberon.


    He drops the juice on TITANIA’s eyelids.
    (W. Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
    Act 2, Sc II)

    Compact Performer Shaping Ideas


    Drama as a literary genre

    4. Characters
    The number of characters, which in the past were called
    Dramatis Personae, may vary but always includes:

    •a hero, the protagonist of the play who is not necessarily


    ‘heroic’, noble and brave;
    •a heroine, the play’s main female character;
    •an antagonist, who is the hero’s main opponent, usually the
    play’s villain.

    Characters can be divided into main or minor according to


    how important they are for the story.

     
    Compact Performer Shaping Ideas
    Drama as a literary genre

    4. Characters
    The character can be introduced through:

    • dialogue, that is, his interaction with other characters;


    • soliloquy and monologue, which reveal his thoughts,
    feelings and personality;
    • asides;
    • stage directions
    - how the character changes, why and when;
    - his/her motivation to action;
    - his/her relationship with other characters.

    Compact Performer Shaping Ideas


    Drama as a literary genre

    5. Dramatic techniques

    Dialogue is the main support of drama since:

    •it creates the action;


    •it provides details about the characters and their
    relationships;
    •it contributes to theme development;
    •it gives information about the past;
    •it can foreshadow subsequent events;
    •it may be built to cause specific reactions in the audience.

    Compact Performer Shaping Ideas


    Drama as a literary genre

    5. Dramatic techniques
    Soliloquy and monologue are special conventions
    of Elizabethan drama.

    soliloquy monologue

    there are other characters


    the character is alone but the speaker
    on the stage ignores them

    These devices enable the playwright to let the audience know:


    • the character’s thoughts about a specific problem;
    • the character’s plans for the future;
    • the character’s feelings and reactions;
    • the character’s explanation of what happens between scenes.
    Compact Performer Shaping Ideas
    Drama as a literary genre

    5. Dramatic techniques
    Asides are short comments made by a character for the
    audience alone, usually occurring in or between speeches.

    Their purposes are:


    •to reveal the nature of the speaker;
    •to draw the attention of the audience to the importance
    of what has been said;
    •to explain developments;
    •to create humour by introducing the unexpected.

    Compact Performer Shaping Ideas


    Drama as a literary genre

    6. The language
    The language of drama is particularly intense and vivid
    because it can share the features of everyday speech,
    of poetry or prose.
    The normal form of Shakespeare’s plays is blank verse
    but prose and poetry can be intermingled.
    Another feature of dramatic language is the use
    of clusters of imagery
    lots of images of a similar nature
    linked to a specific theme in the play.
    clusters of imagery
    Example = the imagery of clothing
    linked to the theme of ‘false
    appearances’ in Macbeth.

    Compact Performer Shaping Ideas

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