- Drama is, in the words of Alfred Hitchcock, "...life with the dull bits cut out"
- Dramas have the ability to be very powerful (its impact is direct, immediate, and heightened by the actors' skills)
- Dramatists are limited to the objective (or dramatic) point of view
- Playwrights are not limited by the power of words (lighting, no noises, audience has nowhere else to look)
- Playwrights limited because plays has to have mostly talking humans, it's hard to change scenes often and fast, and the scale must be right
- During plays, if the audience is packed in tight, there is a communal experience that intensifies meaning
- Other limitations of plays are that plays must hold the attention of the audience (plays can't be too long), the central meaning must be easy to grasp (because no replays), and there can't be any purely narrative/lyrical passages (dialogue instead)
- Plays can be realistic or nonrealistic. There are also degrees of realism in plays.
- All stage production requires artificiality (i.e. missing walls, and actors can't turn their back on the audience for a long time)
- Also, usually dramatic dialogue is more coherent and expressive than real speech. This helps to heighten and intensify reality
- All dramas ask us to accept certain departures from reality - certain dramatic conventions
- The characteristic device of Greek drama, a chorus, is nonrealistic
- Dramas still utilize many of the same devices as poetry (syntax, diction, figurative language, etc.) to create artistic effect
- Many great dramas are also written in the form of poetry
- Macbeth, which I saw performed during the Stratford Shakespeare Festival last year, makes more sense to me now that I know the advantages and drawbacks of drama.
Soliloquy: characters speak to themselves (think out loud)
Aside: characters turn from the persons with whom they are conversing to speak directly to (or for the benefit of) the audience, show what's going on beneath the facade other characters see
Realistic: concern for fact or reality and rejection of the impractical and visionary
Nonrealistic: lack of conern for fact or reality; impractical and visionary
Tragedy: a medieval narrative poem or tale typically describing the downfall of a great man
Comedy: a medieval narrative that ends happily
Melodrama: a work characterized by extravagant theatrically and by the predominance of plot and physical action over characterization
Farce: a light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and improbable plot
Romantic: marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized
Satiric: of, relating to, or constituting satire
Protagonist: the principal character in a literary work
Antagonist; one that contends with or opposes another
Foil characters: someone who serves as a contrast to another
Plot: the plan or main story of a literary work
Suspense: mental uncertainty; anxiety
Theme: a subject or topic of discourse or of artistic representation
Didactic: designed or intended to teach
Dramatic exposition: a setting forth of the meaning or purpose of a writing that is striking in appearance or effect
Chorus: a group of actors speaking in unison, often in a chant, while going through the steps of an elaborate formalized dance
SOURCE:
Perrine, Laurence, Thomas R. Arp, and Greg Johnson. Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. 8th ed. Boston: Heinle & Heinle: Thomson Learning, Inc., 2002. 852-69. Print.
HOMEWORK:
- Read Perrine pg. 1115-1119 (look up boldfaced terms on 1119), and pg. 1160-1164
- Due 11/2/10: Read and annotate Oedipus by Sophocles
- Due 10/29/10: First Marking Period Portfolio Blogs
- Due 10/25/10 at 8 pm: Poetry Questions from "There's a Certain Slant of Light," "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," and "The Fish"
- Due 10/25/10: Transfer journals and post class notes
Pass! :)
ReplyDeleteGood connection to Macbeth. Again, MORE connections! Also, I'm confused...Why do you have two journal entries labeled 10/25/10-10/29/10?
So um, obviously one of them is wrong, but I don't actually know what the time label on the other one should be, so it will continue to be wrong
ReplyDeletePass -
ReplyDeleteI know, Macbeth makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE to me now...but that might be because I've actually read more Shakespeare and talked about him in class and all that fun stuff, not to mention all the drama bits we've learned recently.
Again, your notes are very thorough and I've learned a lot from reading them - however, in terms of connections, just to spice things up a bit, perhaps you could include some non-academic connections? For example, for your definition of "romantic," you could also talk about its connections with the modern romantic comedy. Or whatever, take your pick!
Nice job as usual! :)
Aisling
Pass!
ReplyDeleteWell, I was throughly confused to see that you had two journal with the same date entry, but I'll roll with it. =) I think you did an excellent job in being thorough with your notes. However, the one thing that I did notice was weaker (compared to your top-notch note-taking abilities) was that your connections section is still a bit lacking. Good job though!