[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Arthur Miller s (1915 ) parable The Crucible (1953) about the political
persecutions during the McCarthy era.
Because of the element of performance, drama generally
transcends the textual dimension of the other two major literary
genres, fiction and poetry. Although the written word serves as the
basis of drama, it is, in the end, intended to be transformed into a
performance before an audience. In order to do justice to this change
of medium, we ought to consider text, transformation, and performance
as three interdependent levels of a play.
text
dialogue
monologue
plot
setting
stage direction
transformation performance
directing actors
stage methods
props facial expressions
lighting gestures
language
a)
Text
Since many textual areas of drama character, plot, and setting
overlap with aspects of fiction which have already been explained, the
following section will only deal with those elements specifically
relevant to drama per se. Within the textual dimension of drama, the
spoken word serves as the foundation for dialogue (verbal
MAJOR GENRES IN TEXTUAL STUDIES 47
commimication between two or more characters) and monologue
(soliloquy). The aside is a special form of verbal communication on
stage in which the actor passes on to the audience information which
remains unknown to the rest of the characters in the play.
The basic elements of plot, including exposition, complication,
climax, and denouement, have already been explained in the context
of fiction. They have their origin in classical descriptions of the ideal
course of a play and were only later adopted for analyses of other
genres. In connection with plot, the three unities of time, place,
and action are of primary significance. These unities prescribe that the
time span of the action should roughly resemble the duration of the
play (or a day at the most) and that the place where the action unfolds
should always remain the same. Furthermore, the action should be
consistent and have a linear plot (see Chapter 2, §1: Fiction). The
three unities, which were supposed to characterize the structure of a
good play, have been falsely ascribed to Aristotle. They are better
identified for the most part as adaptations of his Poetics in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. These rigid rules for the presentation of
time, setting, and plot were designed to produce the greatest possible
dramatic effect. Shakespeare s plays, which have always held a very
prominent position in English literature, only very rarely conformed
to these rules. This is why the three unities were never respected in
English-speaking countries as much as they were elsewhere in Europe.
Indirectly related to the three unities is the division of a play into
acts and scenes. Elizabethan theater adopted this structure from
classical antiquity, which divided the drama into five acts. In the
nineteenth century, the number of acts in a play was reduced to four,
and in the twentieth century generally to three. With the help of act
and scene changes, the setting, time, and action of a play can be
altered, thereby allowing the traditional unity of place, time, and
action to be maintained within a scene or an act.
The theater of the absurd, like its counterpart in fiction,
consciously does away with traditional plot structures and leads the
spectator into complicated situations which often seem absurd or
illogical. The complication often does not lead to a climax,
resolution, or a logical ending. In this manner, the theater of the
absurd, like many post-modern novels or films, attempts artistically to
portray the general feeling of uncertainty of the postwar era. Samuel
48 MAJOR GENRES IN TEXTUAL STUDIES
Beckett, whose play Waiting for Godot (1952) contributed to the fame
of the theater of the absurd, is the best-known representative in the
English-speaking world. Comparing Beckett s Waiting for Godot with a
traditional plot, containing exposition, complication, climax, and
denouement, we find few similarities. The title of Beckett s play gives
away the situation of the two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon;
Godot himself receives no further characterization in the course of the
play. The entrance of other characters briefly distracts from but
does not really change the initial situation. The two main characters
do not pass through the main stages of classical plot and do not
undergo any development by the end of the play. Offering neither
logical messages nor a conventional climax, Beckett s play consciously
violates the expectations of audiences familiar only with traditional
theater.
In the twentieth century, with the innovations of the experimental
theater and the theater of the absurd, non-textual aspects of drama are
brought to the foreground. Non-verbal features, which traditionally
functioned as connecting devices between text and performance,
abandon their supporting role and achieve an artistic status equal to
that of the text.
b)
Transformation
Transformation, an important part of dramatic productions in the
twentieth century, refers to the connecting phase between text and
performance. It comprises all logistic and conceptual steps that
precede the performance and are usually summarized under the
heading directing. This transformation is not directly accessible to
the audience; nevertheless, it influences almost all elements of the
performance. The task of the contemporary director includes
choosing the script or text, working out a general concept, casting,
adapting the stage, selecting props, costumes and make-up, and
guiding the actors through rehearsals. The director is therefore
responsible for the entire artistic coordination that guides the text into
performance.
The profession of the director began to evolve in the late
nineteenth century and is thus a relatively new phenomenon in the
MAJOR GENRES IN TEXTUAL STUDIES 49
development of drama. Although directing, as a coordinating
principle, is as old as drama itself, the lines separating the actors,
authors, and coordinators of a performance were, up to the
nineteenth century, very vague. Every so often, the author himself
would lead a production, or a more experienced actor would be given
the task of directing. It was not until the second half of the nineteenth
century that, with the development of realism, the requirements of
productions grew more demanding and the profession of the director [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
Arthur Miller s (1915 ) parable The Crucible (1953) about the political
persecutions during the McCarthy era.
Because of the element of performance, drama generally
transcends the textual dimension of the other two major literary
genres, fiction and poetry. Although the written word serves as the
basis of drama, it is, in the end, intended to be transformed into a
performance before an audience. In order to do justice to this change
of medium, we ought to consider text, transformation, and performance
as three interdependent levels of a play.
text
dialogue
monologue
plot
setting
stage direction
transformation performance
directing actors
stage methods
props facial expressions
lighting gestures
language
a)
Text
Since many textual areas of drama character, plot, and setting
overlap with aspects of fiction which have already been explained, the
following section will only deal with those elements specifically
relevant to drama per se. Within the textual dimension of drama, the
spoken word serves as the foundation for dialogue (verbal
MAJOR GENRES IN TEXTUAL STUDIES 47
commimication between two or more characters) and monologue
(soliloquy). The aside is a special form of verbal communication on
stage in which the actor passes on to the audience information which
remains unknown to the rest of the characters in the play.
The basic elements of plot, including exposition, complication,
climax, and denouement, have already been explained in the context
of fiction. They have their origin in classical descriptions of the ideal
course of a play and were only later adopted for analyses of other
genres. In connection with plot, the three unities of time, place,
and action are of primary significance. These unities prescribe that the
time span of the action should roughly resemble the duration of the
play (or a day at the most) and that the place where the action unfolds
should always remain the same. Furthermore, the action should be
consistent and have a linear plot (see Chapter 2, §1: Fiction). The
three unities, which were supposed to characterize the structure of a
good play, have been falsely ascribed to Aristotle. They are better
identified for the most part as adaptations of his Poetics in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. These rigid rules for the presentation of
time, setting, and plot were designed to produce the greatest possible
dramatic effect. Shakespeare s plays, which have always held a very
prominent position in English literature, only very rarely conformed
to these rules. This is why the three unities were never respected in
English-speaking countries as much as they were elsewhere in Europe.
Indirectly related to the three unities is the division of a play into
acts and scenes. Elizabethan theater adopted this structure from
classical antiquity, which divided the drama into five acts. In the
nineteenth century, the number of acts in a play was reduced to four,
and in the twentieth century generally to three. With the help of act
and scene changes, the setting, time, and action of a play can be
altered, thereby allowing the traditional unity of place, time, and
action to be maintained within a scene or an act.
The theater of the absurd, like its counterpart in fiction,
consciously does away with traditional plot structures and leads the
spectator into complicated situations which often seem absurd or
illogical. The complication often does not lead to a climax,
resolution, or a logical ending. In this manner, the theater of the
absurd, like many post-modern novels or films, attempts artistically to
portray the general feeling of uncertainty of the postwar era. Samuel
48 MAJOR GENRES IN TEXTUAL STUDIES
Beckett, whose play Waiting for Godot (1952) contributed to the fame
of the theater of the absurd, is the best-known representative in the
English-speaking world. Comparing Beckett s Waiting for Godot with a
traditional plot, containing exposition, complication, climax, and
denouement, we find few similarities. The title of Beckett s play gives
away the situation of the two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon;
Godot himself receives no further characterization in the course of the
play. The entrance of other characters briefly distracts from but
does not really change the initial situation. The two main characters
do not pass through the main stages of classical plot and do not
undergo any development by the end of the play. Offering neither
logical messages nor a conventional climax, Beckett s play consciously
violates the expectations of audiences familiar only with traditional
theater.
In the twentieth century, with the innovations of the experimental
theater and the theater of the absurd, non-textual aspects of drama are
brought to the foreground. Non-verbal features, which traditionally
functioned as connecting devices between text and performance,
abandon their supporting role and achieve an artistic status equal to
that of the text.
b)
Transformation
Transformation, an important part of dramatic productions in the
twentieth century, refers to the connecting phase between text and
performance. It comprises all logistic and conceptual steps that
precede the performance and are usually summarized under the
heading directing. This transformation is not directly accessible to
the audience; nevertheless, it influences almost all elements of the
performance. The task of the contemporary director includes
choosing the script or text, working out a general concept, casting,
adapting the stage, selecting props, costumes and make-up, and
guiding the actors through rehearsals. The director is therefore
responsible for the entire artistic coordination that guides the text into
performance.
The profession of the director began to evolve in the late
nineteenth century and is thus a relatively new phenomenon in the
MAJOR GENRES IN TEXTUAL STUDIES 49
development of drama. Although directing, as a coordinating
principle, is as old as drama itself, the lines separating the actors,
authors, and coordinators of a performance were, up to the
nineteenth century, very vague. Every so often, the author himself
would lead a production, or a more experienced actor would be given
the task of directing. It was not until the second half of the nineteenth
century that, with the development of realism, the requirements of
productions grew more demanding and the profession of the director [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]