Drama I

Name two Genres of Drama.

• Comedy

• Tragedy

How does the Communication Model work for Dramatic Texts.

• External Communication System: Empirical author and empirical reader

• Internal Communication System: character communication

> we lose the transmission

How does drama compensate for the absence of a narrator?

• Narrator figure inside or outside the dramatic action

• Speaker of prologue / epilogue

• Commentator / producer figure in modern „epic drama“

• Extended stage-directions

• Film, banners, scene headings

• Alienation effect (Brecht) und thus destruction of aesthetic illusion

What are epic tendencies?

• Attempt to gain control over the realizations of stage control

What are the consequences of the absence of a mediating communication system?

• External and internal communication system overlap

• Time-space continuum: no arbitrary rearrangement of time and space

• Dialogue as fundamental mode of presentation: „Dialogue is spoken action“

What’s the difference between primary texts and secondary texts?

• Primary text: actual written script of the play - the dialogue, stage directions, and actions as scripted by the playwright

• Secondary text: refers to the performance and interpretation of the primary text, this includes actors delivery, directors vision, set designs, costumes, lighting

Explain Channels and Codes.

• Channels: Visual and Acoustical > linguistic: character & stage, paralinguistic: character & stage

• Codes: Verbal and Non-Verbal > character & stage

What’s Visual Communication?

• Starts with doors, etc.

• Influences our perception of the play

• Modern theatre: light

• Shakespeare: only artificial light indoors > very difficult

• Props influence us as well