Ch 4 - An Introduction to the Analysis of Drama PDF

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Zusammenfassung Kapitel 4 aus dem englischsprachigen Nünning plus Infos aus dem Seminar...

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drama vs theatre ● drama is written text (Literary Studies) ● performance of the written text/drama (Theatre Studies) ● two things depend on each other ● involved in dramatic text: author ● involved in theatrical performance: author, stage set, designers, audience, actors ● skills needed to deal with dramatic texts: ability to read, imagination ● skills needed to deal with theatrical performance: all senses involved (hear, touch, feel, see, smell,...) introduction vs exposition ● introduction: establishing a communication channel, dim the lights and audience knows the performance starts, phatic function, awaken interest of the audience, acclimatise the audience to the atmosphere of the play, switch attention to the play, lasts not very long (introduction is just a moment), suspension of disbelief (you leave your reality and the reality on stage becomes your reality, you accept a change of realities) ● exposition: transmission of introductive information necessary, characters, plot, background setting, historical setting ● isolated exposition: right at the beginning of the performance introductory information is given ● integrated exposition: built in in the play, you meet people once they get on stage and get information in snippets monologue, dialogue, soliloquy ● monologue: group of people on stage but only one person is talking ● soliloquy: just one person on stage and this person is the only one to talk ● monological speech is based on the convention of a character thinking aloud on stage, specifically dramatic form of representing consciousness ● level of honesty encountered in a soliloquy (serving the audience to understand the character better) is higher than that of a monologue discrepant awareness, aside ● aside: frequently addressed not to another character on the stage but to the reader or the audience - creates a discrepant awareness and gives the audience an advantage in knowledge ● asides make obvious that there is something to know but the other characters don’t know (overhead projector example) ● monological aside, dialogical aside, aside ad spectatores ● aside: crucial part is that the other characters on stage donˋt hear it (suspension of disbelief) ●

theory of mind: point in a childˋs life when they can imagine what a person knows and doesnˋt know (Kinder verstecken sich indem sie sich die Augen zuhalten, eine Puppe im

Puppenhaus versteckt die Schokolade unter dem Bett, die Mama kommt und legt die Schokolade in den Schrank und geht raus. Das Kind wird gefragt, wo die Puppe wohl nach der Schokolade suchen wird. Kinder in einem Kasperltheater rufen Gretel zu, dass ein Räuber hinter ihr ist weil sie sie sehen und weil sie wissen, dass Gretel das nicht sieht) dramatic irony ● something has to be said and done in a way that only the audience gets but the other characters don’t understand the meaning ● the same statement will change into a different kind of meaningfulness because of discrepant awareness ● discrepant awareness as a prerequisite of the dramatic irony ● key principle of drama: we watch the tragedy or the comedy unfold that we know is going to happen but the characters donˋt drama as a genre ● drama is a written text that wants to be performed ● no narrator present ● everything that is said on the stage: main and primary text -- what is spoken ● everything else: secondary text -- stage directions, title, prefaces, how things are spoken, when things are spoken, emotions expressed, speak loudly or quietly ● two big types of drama: tragedy and comedy ● tragedy’s core principle: main character dies in the end, ends in a catastrophe, hero has some sort of flaw and does an error of judgement, cathartic moment: the moment when the hero with flaws and errors is punished, poetic justice: bad people get punished for their bad deeds and good people get rewarded for their goodness ● basic constituent element for comedy: written to entertain people, happy end, misunderstandings, simple characters, we laugh about stuff that we pretend is not about us but in the end is about us because we talk about characteristics that 4.1. A Text Written for Performance: Fundamental Features of Dramatic Composition ● Process of preparing a drama for performance represents a form of literary adaption in that it involves substituting another medium for the literary text ● Dramatic text functions as a script on which a performance is based; dramatic text = “text to be performed, as a literary artefact conceived with a view to its performance” ● ●

Theatre studies: focus on the theatrical work or the theatrical text, primarily concerned with the analysis of actual performances on the basis of a semiotics of theatre English and American literature studies: analysis and interpretation of dramas as printed texts and focus primarily on the written sources of theatre performance, on the generic characteristics of dramatic texts

4.2. A Communication Model for Dramatic Texts: Special Features of Theatre Communication The distinction between external communication involving the historical author and recipient and communication within the text

Reading a drama: author = addresser, dramatic text = message, reader = addressee Theatre performance: theatre apparatus = adresser, performance = message, audience = addressee (collective) Theatre performance is a highly complex process of communication in which meaning is constituted simultaneously on a number of levels: ● A dramatic level (interaction between characters on stage) ● Theatrical level ( communication between the cast and the audience) ● Everyday life (social communication about the production and its relation to everyday norms) Secondary text: includes all constituent parts of a dramatic text that are not part of the dialogue, e.g. demarcation of acts and scenes, information as to which character is speaking and various other elements such as the title of the play, dedications, prefaces and the list of dramatic personae at the beginning 4.3. Semiotics of Theatre and Non-Verbal Theatrical Codes Semiotics: the study of the signs and codes of theatre communication actor

acoustic

Utterances; voice-quality; pitch; individual vocal

characteristics visual

Appearance (stature, physiognomy, costume, make-up) Body language (facial expression, movement, gesture)

stage

acoustic

Loudspeaker; music; noise

visual

Stage-set; props: lighting; placards

4.4. Transmission of Information and Verbal Communication Functions of monologues and soliloquies: ● Familiarizing the audience with the atmosphere of the play, description of the scenery and surroundings ● Providing expository information about preceding events and the initial situation as well as introducing the action, characters, spatial and temporal context ● Commenting on previous events from the perspective of the speaker ● Introducing the protagonist and his or her self-characterisation ● Giving expression to the speaker`s innermost thoughts and feelings, describing internal processes and conflicts ● Disclosing the speaker`s plans, intentions and decision processes ● Introducing the audience to the personality of the hero/villain ● Arousing expectations with regard to future developments ●...