1. Drama as a literary genre The features of a dramatic text Performer - Culture & Literature Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella, Margaret Layton © 2012

2. Drama as a literary genre A play consists of a number of acts divided into scenes. All Shakespearian plays are made up of five acts: Act 1: introduction Act 2: development Act 3: crisis or turning point Act 4: complications Act 5: denouement = the resolving of all difficulties 1. The structure Performer - Culture & Literature

3. Drama as a literary genre Elizabethan tragedies: are generally introduced by a prologue, spoken by the chorus provides information about the main character / the subject of the play often end with an epilogue - requests applause - is usually played by a central character 1. The structure Performer - Culture & Literature

4. Drama as a literary genre 2. The plot and the setting Performer - Culture & Literature The plot The sub-plot Place and time can be inferred both from the dialogue and the stage directions An open place. Thunder and lightning. (W. Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 1) the story-line of a play a secondary plot. It usually mirrors the themes of the main plot but presents them from a different perspective

5. Drama as a literary genre Stage directions are the instructions a playwright gives to the director and the actors about how a play should be staged. They provide information about 1. the setting; 2. the characters’ actions and movements; 3. the style of acting. 3. Stage directions Performer - Culture & Literature Exeunt all but TITANIA [and the sentinel]. Enter Oberon. He drops the juice on TITANIA’s eyelids. (W. Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Sc II)

6. Drama as a literary genre The number of characters, which in the past were called Drámatis Personae, may vary but always includes: a hero, the protagonist of the play who is not necessarily “heroic”, noble and brave; a heroine, the play’s main female character; an antagonist, who is the hero’s main opponent, usually the play’s villain. Characters can be divided into main or minor according to how important they are for the story. 4. Characters Performer - Culture & Literature

7. Drama as a literary genre The character can be introduced through dialogue, that is, his interaction with other characters; soliloquies, which reveal his thoughts, feelings and personality; asides; stage directions -how the character changes, why and when; -his / her motivation to action; -his / her relationship with other characters should also be analysed. Performer - Culture & Literature 4. Characters

8. Drama as a literary genre Dialogue is the main support of drama since: it creates the action; it provides details about the characters and their relationships; it contributes to theme development; it gives information about the past; it can foreshadow subsequent events; it may be built to cause specific reactions in the audience. 5. Dramatic techniques Performer - Culture & Literature

9. Drama as a literary genre Soliloquy andmonologue are special conventions of Elizabethan drama. 5. Dramatic techniques Performer - Culture & Literature These devices enable the playwright to let the audience know: the character’s thoughts about a specific problem; the character’s plans for the future; the character’s feelings and reactions; the character’s explanation of what happens between scenes. the character is alone on the stage the character is alone on the stage monologue there are other characters but the speaker ignores them there are other characters but the speaker ignores them soliloquy

10. Drama as a literary genre Asides are short comments made by a character for the audience alone, usually occurring in or between speeches. Their purposes are: to reveal the nature of the speaker, to draw the attention of the audience to the importance of what has been said; to explain developments; to create humour by introducing the unexpected. 5. Dramatic techniques Performer - Culture & Literature

11. Drama as a literary genre The language of drama is particularly intense and vivid because it can share the features of everyday speech, of poetry or prose. The normal form of Shakespeare’s plays is blank verse but prose and poetry can be intermingled. Another feature of dramatic language is the use of clusters of imagery Performer - Culture & Literature 6. The language lots of images of a similar nature linked to a specific theme in the play Example = the imagery of clothing linked to the theme of ‘false appearances’ in Macbeth clusters of imagery