AP Lit Drama and Theatre terms

Drama, Tragedy, and Theatre terms - Antigone + King Lear apply

Lament

mourn

Eulogy

a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly, typically someone who has just died

Mediation

negotiation between disputing parties, assisted by a neutral third party

ode

poem that’s meant to be sung

Free/Blank Verse

• free: poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter
• blank: no rhyme BUT meter usually iambic pentameter

Dramatic Irony

audience aware of action before characters; suspense in how the well known events will transpire and irl

3 Unities in Antigone: Time, Subject and Place

• time: all action within 24 hours
• place: action limited to one setting
• subject: one main plot focused on mc

Chorus

used to provide exposition and commentary on actions (narrator type role)

• always on stage
• frequently sang and danced
• had leader who carried on dialogue with mc and rest of chorus
• communal character that is involved in plot guiding main character

Why is the chorus necessary?

sets the tone

gives background info

gives advice to protag if asked

interprets and summarizes events

stay objective

offer opinions (they’re always right) as questions

act like jury of elders to reach moralistic conclusion

not necessarily rep of playwright’’s opinions

ask questions to make character look like a idiot and fix things

how do they perform

performed in sing with a highly formal, stylized back and forth movement that heightens emotion

Strophe

left to right

Antistrophe

right to left

Epode

completed chorus’ movement

General characteristics of Odes

written about a dignified and lofty subject

solemn, heroic + elevated form

exalted, complex, rapturous lyrics poem

Original form of odes

ceremonial form, used to follow strict rules of meter, rhythm and rhyme

How are odes different in dramas?

delivered by chorus singing and performing elaborate dance

• 3 units: strophe, antistrophe, epode - meant to correspond to the ebbs and flows of emotion

Contemporary odes characteristics

used to mediate on or address a single object or condition; no longer in ceremonial form, much more flexible, written in varied or irregular meter

Methods of indirect characterization

through others speaking about them + their reaction to others

Exposition

intro to conflict + mood/setting

Rising Action

intro to characters, conflcits elucidated + plot set in motion

Climax

protagonist gains insight → action changes direction because of this awareness

Falling Action

failure to resolve conflicts + present activity of antagonist forces

Catastrophe

solves conflict, demonstrates tragic failure + sometimes has reveral (peripetry) and discovery (anagnorisis)

• reversal in thought/character pro to antag or vice versa
• discovery as in finding themselves

Peripetry

a sudden and unexpected change of fortune or reverse of circumstances

Anagnorisis

the point in a play when principal character recognizes or discovers another character's true identity or the true nature of their own circumstances.

Essentials of Dramas: plot and conflict

plot: structure of play’s actions ordered to achieve artistic or emotional effects -- focus on the interrelation of events + the effects of the interrelation

conflict: the drama itself is the action of human conflict

how are characters developed?

physical appearance, soliloquoy, dialouge, action

Rhetorical prose

elevated above colloquial by intentional artificial speech

Naturalism

closest to normal talking

Rhetorical verse

along lines of prose/poem - heightened form of language and delivery

rhetorical diction

want something from reader

figurative diction

not taken literally

colloquial diction

natural language

serious diction

present in tragedy → develops tone

aside

only audience or another character on stage

soliloquoy

character speaks thoughts, alone on stage

monologue

long speech, others on stage

tragic irony

(only in tragedy) based on material/plot audience knows

romantic irony

author builds up illusion only to shatter it by telling audience of his conscious interest

verbal irony

speaker says one thing means another

dramatic irony

audience knows specific details before characters

situational irony

something unexpected happens

Audience (list 5)

Catharsis, tragedy (2), moralists, comedy

catharsis

release of emotions

tragedy (2)

1. tragedy purges mind and heart by creating pity; catharsis of sympathy for those suffering
2. psychological and emotional comprehension of protagonist’s suffering

moralists

ethical effects; sense of divine justice; even though innocents freq suffer, wicked always punished

comedy

extension of tragedy - antidote to agony; makes possible the acceptance of tragic reality by making sport of human behavior; amusing comment on own seriousness