Composition 1102: An Introduction to the Genres of Literature Drama

1
Composition 1102 An Introduction to the Genres
of LiteratureDrama

• All the world s a stage,And all the men and
  women merely players They have their exits and
  their entrancesAnd one man in his time plays
  many parts. . .
• William Shakespeare, As You Like It

2
Drama An Overview

• CLASSICAL LITERARY THEORY

• Aristotle in Ars Poetica states that the true
  essence of drama is
• . . . Imitated human action

3
There are three necessary elements for the show
to go on

• A story must be told. . .
• A story must be told in action. . .
• A story must be told in action by actors
  impersonating characters.

4
Dramas Classical History

• Drama arose from ancient Greek ceremonial events
• COMEDY Dionysian fertility rites
• TRAGEDY sacrifices to the gods, Gr. Tragoidia,
  song of the goat

5
Some key terms relating to Greek tragedy. . .

• Catharsis the purifying of the emotions or
  release of emotional tension, i.e., audience
  purged of fear and pity
• Hamartia the protagonists tragic flaw (a man
  of stature falls from grace due to this weakness
  )
• Deus ex machina (Gr. god from a machine) a
  figure representing a deity which intervenes in
  the action today any character or event brought
  artificially into a story or drama to solve
  problem

6
Creating Reality Onstage

• Dramatic conventions are used in theatre. They
  are devices, substitutions made onstage to serve
  as reality
• Actors are the persons of the story
• The stage is scene/geographical setting
• Intervals between acts and scenes represent time
  passing (can expand or contract)
• We accept that characters communicate in speeches
  and/or soliloquies
• Costumes and makeup can create fantastic
  characters
• Lighting can enforce the plot and create meaning

7
The Comic Vision

• Comedy is the fraternal twin of tragedy
• . . .many comedies are filled with tragic
  potential, and many tragedies contain potentially
  comic plots (Roberts and Jacobs)
• COMEDY moves toward success, happiness, and
  marriage, while TRAGEDY moves toward despair and
  death.

8
More About Comedy. . .

• Comedy evolved from the Greek notion of the
  komos song, or song of revels, sung by
  merrymakers
• Diction (level of formality) is often low
  colloquial, spoken by common man, witty,
  sometimes bawdy
• Enacted in the hope that enacting the play would
  encourage divine favor (happiness and prosperity)
• The comic pattern our response is in keeping
  with the comic situation (i.e., in the case of
  slapstick, being hit with a paddle is not funny)

9
Comedy Is. . .

• (Roberts and Jacobs)
• . . .a pattern of action, including funny
  situations and language, that we perceive as
  solvable and correctable. . .
• A goal for the playwright is a resolution that
  satisfies us.
• The spectator perceives
• Comic patterns gtfueled by confusion,
  misunderstandings and mistakes
• Comic climax gtpressure is at a high point and
  choices must be made
• Comic characters gtlimited more that tragedy,
  often employs types
• Comic language gtvery important! Includes wit,
  puns, bawdy jokes and double entendres

10
The Tragic Vision

• Tragedy tells of a renowned person who falls as
  a result of some error, or frailty, or due to the
  influence of external or internal forces, or
  both
• The reversal of action and growth of
  understanding for the main character is what
  Aristotle calls the peripete.
• The moment of comprehension (anagnorisis) is when
  the protagonist comes to understand his/her place
  in the scheme of things.
• Question to consider In Eugene ONeills Before
  Breakfast, what is Mr. Rowlands tragic flaw?
  When is the anagnorisis?

• The tragic vision impels the man of action to
  fight against his destiny. . . and state his case
  before God or his fellows. It impels the artist,
  in his fictions, toward boundary-situationsman
  at the limits of his sovereignty Job on the
  ash-heap, Prometheus on the crag, Oedipus in his
  moment of self-discovery, Lear on the heath, Ahab
  on his lonely quarter-deck. . .(Sewall, "The
  Vision of Tragedy")

11
THATS ALL FOLKS!

• The End