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Drama, both as a standalone concept and within the realm of literature, holds significant importance as artistic expression. It is a genre that presents a narrative through the enactment of characters on a stage, often involving dialogue, actions, and conflicts that unfold in front of an audience.
The definition of drama is that it is a literary work that is intended to be presented on a stage or--in contemporary times--in a film by actors to an audience and that has characters who are...
Restoration Tragedy. Comedy of Manners. Characteristics. Theatres were closed during the Puritan Age. During the Restoration Age, they re-opened with new types of plays and performances which were different than before. The theatres which were indoor were much smaller than the Elizabethan theatres.
Nov 12, 2020 · Structural and social theories of drama have until very recently almost totally dominated dramatic theory in England and America, where Anglo-Saxon pragmatism and empiricism have tended to discourage metaphysical speculation.
- I. What Is Drama?
- II. Examples of Drama
- III. Types of Drama
- IV. The Importance of Drama
- V. Examples of Drama in Literature
- VI. Examples of Drama in Popular Culture
- VII. Related Terms
Drama has two very different meanings. In modern pop culture, it means a genre of film or televisionthat deals with serious, often negative, emotions. It’s the opposite of comedy, which is just for laughs. Drama refers only to film and television, not novels or other purely written art forms. In the past (up until the rise of Hollywood), drama had ...
Example 1
Cartoons are usually associated with comedy, and the majority of dramas are live-action. But there are a few exceptions. For example, the wildly popular Dragon Ball Z is an action cartoon from Japan that deals with an alien prince, martial arts tournaments, and (in some episodes) the challenges of raising children. Although the show is mostly made for kids, it still has simplified elements of adult drama.
Example 2
According to Rotten Tomatoes (and plenty of other critics), Citizen Kane is the greatest drama ever made. This historical drama is fictional, but it’s based on the life and career of William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper publisher who became fabulously wealthy and influential, but was also criticized for using deception and “yellow journalism” (scandalous exaggerations) in his papers. Citizen Kanesuggests that Hearst may have been struggling with inner demons caused by his childhood abandonm...
Hollywood has been producing dramas for decades, and they are an extremely diverse group – but there are a few broad categories that many of these dramas fall into.
No one is entirely sure why we love drama so much, but it seems to be universal – human beings in every culture have loved a good story, and at heart that’s all a drama is. We love to hear about love, danger, betrayal, and adventure, especially when there’s a good conflict and a compelling cast of characters.
Example 1
The Ring Cycleby Richard Wagner is widely considered one of the greatest achievements in both drama and music. It’s a series of operas about Norse gods and dragon-slaying heroes. At the end of the cycle, the whole world burns in the fires of the Gotterdammerung (Downfall of the Gods). In some stagings of the opera, the theater has actually been set on fire to simulate this apocalyptic event!
Example 2
Since the Greeks, perhaps the most famous dramatist has been William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s plays still form the basis for much of modern drama, because he managed to write compelling stories that have stood the test of time. For example, the movie 10 Things I Hate About You was based on The Taming of the Shrew, while West Side Story was based on Romeo and Juliet.
Example 1
Friday Night Lights is a popular TV drama about a high school football team in rural Texas. The drama in this show comes from two places: first, from the action on the field. The players’ on-field wins and losses play a huge role in setting the mood for each episode. Simultaneously, though, all the characters are dealing with the ups and downs of romantic relationships, so Friday Night Lightsis a romance in addition to a “sports drama.”
Example 2
Mad Max: Fury Roadis a perfect example of a modern action drama. It has a small set of characters, a frightening villain, and a clear source of conflict – the effort to escape from Immortan Joe and get to the Green Place. Although there are a few moments of comic relief, the movie is mostly focused on emotions of fear, excitement, and rage – typical for an action drama.
Example 3
With its four Oscar wins, The King’s Speech was one of the most acclaimed movies of recent years. This historical drama tells the story of King George VI, who held the British crown during World War II. George VI suffered from a severe stammer, which he had to overcome in order to serve as the symbolic leader of the British people during this traumatic period. Like many historical dramas, the film combines a historical story (the war) with a personal one.
Melodrama
Melodrama is an exaggerated, extreme form of drama. In it, all the characters behave in slightly ridiculous ways due to the extreme emotional roller coasters that they’re experiencing. Soap operas are a great example of melodrama, with the overblown gestures and facial expressions of the actors and their incredibly over-the-top emotional twists and turns.
Tragedy
Modern dramas are somewhat similar to the ancient art form known as tragedy. Like dramas, tragedies deal with negative emotions and often cause sadness, anxiety, and pity in the audience. However, classical tragedy had a few distinguishing features. For one thing, there was no comic relief. For another, tragedies always had a sad ending – the hero had to be killed or brought down, usually through his own weakness and mistakes. In modern drama, these sad endings are quite rare, as modern audie...
Dramedy
Dramedy is halfway in between comedy and drama. All dramas have a little comedy in them (comic relief), and most comedies have their serious moments. So there’s a sliding scale from drama to comedy, and stories right in the middle are called dramedies. The show Scrubs, for example, started off as a comedy but slowly became more of a dramedy as the writers focused more and more on the characters’ romantic relationships rather than on jokes.
Like fiction, drama —sometimes referred to as a play —features characters caught up in a plot, or series of events in a storyline. Just like in fiction, the plot is the trajectory of the story. Plays and novels are actually very similar in this way. In fact, some plays have been based on novels, and novels on plays.
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Sep 27, 2017 · Argues for Dionysus as symbol of suffering and resurrection, associating his travails with those of other Greek heroes; tragedy as art form that purifies heroic suffering. New introduction on intellectual context.
