Introduction to Drama and Theatre

Drama

• Drama is a form of communication distinct from other literary genres
• Dramatic text is primarily written for performance, not solely reading
• Theatre performance connects acoustic and visual dimensions
• The communication in drama involves several speakers and addressees taking on various characters
• Dialogue is the main means of information transmission
• Drama lacks mediation seen in narrative texts
• Dramatic texts may contain narrative elements
• Theatre communication includes both verbal and non-verbal elements
• Theatre codes can be related to actors, stage, or other aspects
• Codes are categorized as either individual/nondurative (temporarily present) or durative (constant)
• Exposition introduces setting and initial information, potentially integrated or isolated
• Dialogue drives the action, character development, and conflict resolution
• Monologue is when a character speaks alone; soliloquy is an inner monologue revealed to the audience
• Asides are addressed to the reader or other characters, allowing insight into the character's thoughts
• Dramatic irony occurs when the audience possesses information unavailable to the characters
• Character action within a play has implications based on their abilities, needs, motivations, and intentions
• Characters can be realistic or functional, affecting the perspective & knowledge of others
• Dramatis personae are all characters in the play
• A scene analysis examines the change and configuration of characters, their relationships, knowledge and psychological dispositions
• Character conceptions can be one-dimensional (simple characteristics) or multidimensional (numerous features)
• Character types can include personification, individuals, social class representations, or psychological types
• Characterization techniques include those seen through the character's appearance, before first appearance, or in-presence

Narrative Texts

• Narrative texts analyze characters and plots, and the narrative transmission modes, presenting time and space
• Story is the chronological sequence of events; plot is the arranged structure of events in a narrative work
• Narrative texts involve different forms of communication like, real author, fictive narrator, plot focus, story focus, fictive reader, real reader
• The different levels of communication in narrative texts involve authors, narrators, and characters
• There are different narrative situations like first-person, figural, and authorial that present various perspectives in the story
• Narrative situations are categorized based on the narrator's or character's roles and level of involvement/distance in the narrative, as well as the perspectives of other involved characters,
• Homodiegetic refers to a first person narrator involved in the story.
• Heterodiegetic narrators are not a part of the story, but they reflect on the role of the narrator.
• Focalization refers to who sees or narrates the events
• Narrative is classified as overt and covert based on if the narrator is explicit or hidden (e.g if they are being overt by appearing in the story)
• Narrator reliability is evaluated based on their explicitness, lack of or accuracy of perception of events.
• Different narrative modes include scenes, stretches or slow downs relating plot duration to discourse duration, ellipses (missing periods of time) and ponses (holding time), etc
• Narrative modes include singulative, repeating, and iterative (regularly occurring events) narration that can be used to present the story
• Place in narrative takes forms depending on if it influences the mood or setting of the story, provides context, or supplies a panoramic view
• Ending structures in narratives can be closed (with conflicts fully resolved) or open (with unresolved conflicts), or if it conforms or deviates from expected outcomes such as poetic justice

Poetry

• Poetry focuses on subjective perspectives and artistry using diverse forms
• Key characteristics of poetry include elements like rhyme schemes, regular rhythms, lack of plot, non ordinary language, briefness, spatial and temporal relationships
• Poetry utilizes paradigms/syntagmatics to explain various linguistic levels and elements.
• The speech situation in poetry involves the author, speaker ("lyric persona"), and addressee (often the reader) having different roles.
• The focus shifts to the expression, delivery through linguistic choices based on perspective.
• Metre refers to the rhythmic patterns of stressed/unstressed syllables in poetry.
• Poetic forms include monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter etc. differentiated by the number of metrical feet
• Rhyme schemes create connections and structure between lines/ stanzas of verse
• Other phonological structures, like alliteration, consonance, and assonance, also impact the sound features of poetic works.
• Imagery is used as a figurative expression with metaphors that shift the meanings of words while metonymy involves logical connections)
• Rhetorical figures and deviations in syntax contribute to the coherence and formal development of the poem through repetition, similar structures, etc.