Drama and Theatre

3.1. dual nature of dramatic texts

3.2. Theatres and stages

drama vs. theatre (performance)

multimediality

primary text vs. secondary text

stage directions

speech tags / speaker designation

Elizabethan public stage / (neutral) platform stage

proscenium stage / apron stage

picture-frame stage

dramatic conventions

3.3. Information management

dramatic irony

scenic presentation vs. narration (showing vs. telling)

point of attack

back story

V-effect, alienation (effect)

metadramatic / -theatrical elements

comic relief

character perspective

discrepancy of awareness

3.4. Dramatic speech

dialogue vs. monologue vs. soliloquy

turn / turn taking / repartee

aside

(direct) audience address (speaking out of character)

3.5. Dramatic characters / characterization

configuration of characters (in individual scenes)

overall constellation of characters (in a

play)

character conception (type vs. individual, flat vs. round characters)

characterization, techniques of characterization (figural vs. authorial,

explicit vs. implicit)

dramatis personae

protagonist vs. antagonist

3.6. Story, plot and action in drama

story vs. plot

action

(main) plot vs. subplot

multiple plot, strands / lines of action

act / scene

chorus

prologue / epilogue

hamartia

catharsis

peripeteia/peripetia/peripety

anagnorisis

catastrophe

deus ex machina

play-within-the-play

dumb show (pantomime, mime)

unity of action

3.7. Dramatic/theatrical space and spatial structure

theatrical space

spatial setting (locale; onstage fictional space)

props, stage properties

wings, flats, backdrop

scenery

word scenery

unity of place

3.8. Time and temporal structure

temporal setting

fictional time vs. (actual) performance time

unity of time

3.9. Dramatic sub-genres

tragedy vs. comedy

mystery play

morality (play)

history (play)

comedy of manners

tragicomedy

melodrama

well-made play

epic drama

theatre of the absurd