III. The Elements of Drama

 1. Plot – the certain arrangement of events to reveal the meaning

▲ Involved plot: each action flows out of some preceding action.

  Basic framwork of plot: exposition-- rising action (complication)-- climax-- fallling action-- resolution --- often with open endings in modern stories (nothing is resolved at the end)

  Conflict: a necessary element of fictional literature. No conflict, no drama.

  Types of conflict: Person vs God/Fate/Machine; Person vs Self; Person vs Person; Person vs Society; Person vs Nature; Person vs Supernatural

▲Episodic plot: one event follow another but shows little or no causal effect ( as seen in Our Town).

▲Acts and scenes

▲ The Passing of Time

 2. Theme: a general idea beyond the story (the subject refers to what the story is about)

 3. Character and Characterization

 Character:  the features and traits that form the individual nature of a person (hero/ heroine –protagonist/ antagonist, stereotypes, anti-heroes, flat/ round character)

▲ a foil or a character who can be a minor character, standing in contrast to another one

▲ a type character, the representative of a country, an occupation, and an manner of life

▲ A play tends to show static rather than developing characters, again because of the limited time at its disposal.

  Characterization: the process of creating imaginary characters (3 ways: direct ---summary of thecharacter's traits/ indirect --- presentation of the character in action with little explicit comment/ the presentation from within a character’s mind,  revealing the person's inner life of thoughts and emotions);

 4. Dialogue – a major ingredient of drama

  ▲characters talking about themselves

  ▲ characters speaking about each other

 5. Soliloquy

 6. Aside

 7. Chorus

 8. Masks

 9. Disguise

 10. Songs and dance

 11. Langue and mood

 12. Music and lighting

IV. The Types of Drama

1. Tragedy

2. Comedy

3. Tragicomedy

4. Melodrama

5. Farce

 

V. The Styles of Drama

 1. The Classical Style (Greek tragedy)

 2. Neoclassicism ( 17th century)

 3. Romanticism (late 18th century and early 19th C.)

 4. Naturalism (middle 19th century)

 5. Realism (late 19th century)

 6. Symbolism

 7. Surrealism

 8. Expressionism

 9. Theatre of the Absurd