How does drama differ from fiction and poetry

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How does drama differ from fiction and poetry?

• Absence of narrator/mediator (usually) we have
  to construct meaning directly.
• Stagecraft lighting other elements to create
  setting/mood on stage.
• Collaborative effort director actors must
  interpret the playwrights words.
• Every production of a play is different.
• Theatre is a group experience actors affected by
  audience response audience members affect each
  other.

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Brief history of drama

• Greeks, beginning around 500 B.C. Aeschylus,
  Sophocles, Euripedes tragedy Aristophanes,
  Menander comedy.
• Romans a couple of centuries later Terence,
  Plautus comedies. Seneca tragedy.
• Long dry spell a few in medieval times.
• Renaissance Shakespeare et al. Restoration
  plays. Spanish, French golden ages.
• British greatness, beginning with G. B. Shaw
  (1890) and continuing into 20th century.
• American drama begins in 1787 with Tylers The
  Contrast. Becomes great with ONeill (1915) and
  continues to present day.

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Aristotle elements of drama

• Plot action of drama--what happens
• Character revealed in time motivation
• Thought
• theme
• issues addressed
• statement on society
• Diction dialogue soliloquy
• Music song
• Spectacle
• Extravagant
• Grotesque
• minimalist

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Tragedy

• Q Why do we want to watch tragedy?
• Aristotle tragedy evokes fear and pity in
  audience, causing catharsis.
• The tragic spirit is more or less pessimistic.
• The tragic spirit is essentially humanistic it
  is centered on the interest and claims of man.
• The tragic spirit is not cynical.
• The tragic spirit is an affirmation of positive
  values great tragedies do not end in sheer
  terror, horror, or despair.

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Purpose of Tragedy

• Tragedy enriches our experience by deepening,
  widening, and refining our consciousness of the
  possibilities of life.
• Tragedy examines the problem of mans fate his
  relations to his total environment, his position
  in the universe, the ultimate meaning of his
  life.
• Greek tragedy promoted life by promoting wisdom.
• The old stories were told to be more
  philosophical than historical

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From response sheets

• The dual nature of the sisters two halves of a
  whole
• Bianca knows she can affect men and so she plays
  a game with them.
• Kate actually is very vulnerable crying.
• Kate sees how barbaric she had acted at home upon
  arrival at Petruchios.
• No real reason why Kate is such a shrew from
  her perspective.
• At first I thought Petruchio was just a drunk!
  But there is some sober nobility in him.

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• Nobody really wonders why Kate is so wild--maybe
  she got mad that her sister is the favorite of
  everyone (even the suitors, who should have come
  to her first) so she decided to be as unpleasant.
• Maybe Kate is shown as wild because she doesnt
  want to be married--a husband will tame her.
• Bianca is the opposite, well mannered and lovely
  because she wants to be married.

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Restoration drama

• English Civil War over religion, politics
• King Charles I beheaded
• Theatres closed by Puritans 1642
• Regency Period (Oliver Cromwell) regicides
  pursued
• Heir to throne Charles II in Paris, attends
  French theatre
• Charles II restored to throne 1660
• Theatres open--mostly comedies
• Restoration Period ca. 16601700

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Neoclassical drama Europe

• Practiced in France, Italy, Spain, Britain
• Often based on Greek or Roman drama
• Indoor theatres with proscenium arch
• Footlights, movable sets developed
• Privileged thought over feeling
• Aristotles Unities strictly observed
• unity of time (around 24 hours)
• unity of place (single set)
• unity of action (one main plot)

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A few Spanish and French neoclassical playwrights

• Lope de Vega (1200 plays)
• Calderón (Life is a Dream)
• Pierre Corneille (adapt. of Vegas Le Cid)
• Jean Racine (Phaedra)
• Molière comic French playwright well meet next
  time!

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British restoration drama

• John Dryden (16311700) All for Love
• Sir George Etherege (163591) The Man of Mode, or
  Sir Fopling Flutter
• Aphra Behn (164089) The Rover
• William Wycherley (16401716) The Country Wife
  The Plain Dealer
• Thomas Otway (165285) Venice Preservd
• William Congreve (16701729) The Way of the World
  (1700)

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Wit

• Began around beginning of Restoration
• Primarily a mans game not many women recognized
  as wits
• Purposes
• identified with reason, judgment.
• used as a means of discovering truth,
  undermining vice, and laughing folly out of
  existence.
• Associated descriptive words
• ingenuity, invention, imagination, fancy,
  extravagance, epigrammatic conceit, humor,
  raillery, satire, irony, criticism, and ridicule

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The Comedy of Manners

• Holds up a mirror to society through wit
• Society shown to be artificial, superficial
• Its acceptable to be wicked, but one hates to be
  ridiculous
• Verbal pyrotechnics attempts to be witty
• Deals cynically with passion no moral(s)
• Shows what should be avoided, not imitated
• Dramatic conventions
• repartee, proviso scenes, raillery, cuckolding,
  cheating

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The Way of the World

• Mirabell in love with Mrs. Millamant
• Mrs. Millamant loves Mirabell
• Lady Wishfort Millamants aunt, enemy to
  Mirabell
• Fainall in love with Mrs. Marwood
• Mrs. Marwood likes Mirabell
• Witwoud, Petulant followers of Millamant
• Foible Lady Wishforts servant

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