Drama (25%) Flashcards
What is a “drama”/ “dramatic text”?
- text in written language
- reception not bound to a specific time or place
- each act of reading is unique, but the same text can be
reread
-Intended primarily to be performed on stage (script for a
theatre performance) - “collective nature of production and reception“
Theatre/theatrical performance:
- multimodal (visual and auditory) text
- reception bound to a specific time and place
- unique and transient
A drama can function as the script for a performance.
How is meaning constituted in a theater performance?
1.a dramatic level (interaction between the characters on stage)
2.a theatrical level (communication between the cast and the audience)
3.level of everyday life (social communication about the production and its relation to everyday norms)
What is a primary text?
- characters‘ remarks, spoken aloud during performance
What is a secondary text?
- stage directions concerning:
- stage set
- characters‘ gestures, facial expressions
- all constituent parts which are not part of the dialogue: e.g.
demarcation of acts and scenes, information as to which
character is speaking, title of the play, dedications, preface,
list of dramatis personae
Ways of transmitting information in drama:
a) dialogue
b) stichomythia
c) monologue
d) soliloquy
e) aside
f) messenger report
g) teichoscopy
Dialogue:
the exchange of spoken words between two or more characters in a book, play, or other written work
Stichomythia (eselsbrücke:sticheleien)
dialogue in which two characters speak alternate lines of verse,
Monologue:
when a character in a dramatic work speaks directly to the audience, expressing their inner thoughts
Soliloquy:
a long form speech delivered by a single character in a play or a film.
-addresses other characters in the audience
Aside:
An aside is when a fictional character breaks away from the events of the story to talk to themselves or directly to the audience. (monological/dialogical/ad spectatores)
Messenger report:
It is a report about events, which take place not directly on stage, but in some spatial or temporal distance. On one hand, the messenger’s report is adopted from the older genre “epic”, since events are presented in a narrative way.
Teichoscopy:
a theatrical means of communicating occurrences that happen offstage. A figure, commonly subaltern and anonymous, climbs to an elevated position to report what it sees from this vantage point while the leading figure remains below to hear.
-(characters observe and
simultaneously report events which are happening
off-stage)
What is the difference between a dramatic text and a performance?
(characters observe and
simultaneously report events which are happening off-stage)
What is “internal communication”?
between characters
What is “external communication”?
between actors and the audience
Mono-dimensional/flat character:
“are constructed around a single idea or quality and are unchanging.”
Multi-dimensional/round character:
“include more complex features and usually develop in the course of the action.”
Which questions are asked when talking about the individuality of a character?
- How much information does a play provide on a character?
- What degree of individuality is thus granted to a character?
The “type”:
focuses on a small, internally consistent collection
of qualities or features which are common to many people.”
(104)
Examples
* physiological types (conditions of the body in comedy of
humours): determined by one of the four humours (black
bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood -> see next two slides).
* psychological types, embodying a particular mode of
human behaviour (e.g. the grouch, the braggart, or the
miser)
* social types: based on a particular profession or social
class (e.g. the courtier, city-dweller, peasant)
the “stock character”:
- a subcategory of ‘type’
- They exemplify cultural stereotypes and characteristics
associated with a specific group of people. - “Stock characters draw on cultural conventions for their
behaviour, personality, and manner of speech and are thus
easily recognizable for the audiences of the same culture”
(105) - Example: the miles gloriosus, the braggart soldier, who gloats
on his deeds (Shakespeare’s Falstaff is based on this type
but arguably more individualised)
Authorial characterisation:
conveyed primarily through the secondary text
▸ can be found in stage directions, telling names, and
the preface of a play, as well as in the character
constellations, and the creation of correspondences
and contrasts among the dramatis personae
Figural characterisation:
▸ conveyed primarily through the primary text and verbal aspects in performance
▸ based on speech, gestures, appearance, and actions
Explicit authorial characterisation:
- (evaluative) “description
of […] figures in the
secondary text” (Pfister
194) - telling names ”such as Mr
Pinchwife, Lady Wishfort, Mrs
Loveit and Sir Wilfull Witwoud”
(Pfister 194)
