Drama and Shakespeare (LV 7)

-performativity

-impersonation

-multimediality

-collectivity (production & reception)

-immediacy

-dramatic text: script for a theatre performance

-performance: requires a script & apparatus of theatre production

->primary function of dramatic text: to be performed (there are exceptions)

-difference: dramatic text vs. performance(s)

*dramatic text: focus of literary studies

*performance: focus of theatre studies

-theatre studies vs. literary studies

-verbal, visual, auditive channels (multimedial/multimodal)

-theatre semiotics

-stage

-actors & actresses

-audience

-text types in a play: stage directions, dialogues, monologues, prose pieces

-verbal (spoken text)

-non-linguistic codes:

*acoustics (music, sounds)

*visuals (set, props, lighting, characters' costume, make-up, facial expression, position, posture, movement,...)

*other sensory element (e.g. smells, feelings)

-related to character (e.g. costumes)/stage (e.g. props, stage design, music)

-production & reception:

director, actors, set designers, etc are all included in the process as addresses

-large audience functions as addressee

-compared to other literary text, watching a play is a social event (many people involved)

-act of reading a drama

*author functions as the addresser

*dramatic text functions as the message

*reader functions as the addressee

-theatre performance

*entire theatre apparatus assumes the role of the addresser

*performance constitutes the message

*audience assumes the role of the addressee

->the two communication processes are closely linked & influence each other mutually

-internal system of communication:

character -> character

-external system of communication:

play total -> audience

-primary text:

spoken text

e.g. dialogues, monologues, etc.

-secondary text:

includes all constituent parts of a dramatic text that aren't part of the dialogue

stage directions: how the text is to be performed, dramatic personae, description of staging, etc.

often in italics

->stage direction: usually in prose & reduced syntax

->more showing than telling (immediacy!)

but presence of a narrator possible!

-ways of telling

*Greek Chorus: in ancient theatre many people, often reduced to fewer or one person(s)

modern use: narrator on stage

function: set the atmosphere, foreshadowing, clarify background, genre

*epic theatre (e.g. Bertol Brecht): e.g. narrator outside action

function: alienation effects (destroying aesthetic illusion)

-dialogue (2 speaker)

-polylogue (> 2 speakers)

-monologue

-soliloquy

->in narratives: reader follows (in)direct thoughts; monologue, soliloquy may act as substitute for this

->representation of consciousness, thinking out loud

-monologue

character speaks alone but in presence of others

-soliloquy

character speaks alone on stage or is regardless of hearers

often used for the divulgence of innermost feelings

(= Monolog vs. Selbstgespräch)

-familiarizing audience with the atmosphere of the play, description of scenery/surroundings

-providing expository information about preceding events/initial situation, introducing action, characters, spatial & temporal context

-commenting on previous events from the perspective of the speaker

-introducing protagonist & his/her self-characterization

-expression to the speaker's innermost thoughts & feelings, describing internal processes & conflicts

-disclosing speaker's plans, intentions, & decision processes

-introducing audience to the personality of hero/villain (eliciting sympathy/dislike)

-arousing expectations

= artificial method to transmitting information

-frequently addressed to teh reader/audience in the theatre

-provides the audience with an advantage over the other character

-monological aside:

thought is voiced by characters on stage; only audience understands

-dialogical aside:

groups of characters conduct a conspiratorial conversation in whispers

-aside ad spectatores

character addresses comment directly to the audience

->may also function as representation of inner thoughts on stage

-uneven distribution of information

*audience knows more/less than character A/all characters

*character A knows more/less than character B/all characters

-essential tool for

*creating interest, empathy, suspense

*driving action forward

*placing audience in privilege/ignorant position

-dynamic pattern of information distribution throughout the play

≠not the same as verbal irony!

-audience has superior level of knowledge

-aware of character's errors of judgement

-remark of character reinforces situation

-can be comic/tragic

-discrepant awareness is a pecondition of it

"The invisible man"

-"Chandos portrait"

-baptized 26 April 1564

-information on Shakespeare's life scarce

-poet, actor, playwright

-probably wrote all plays by himself

-no original (handwritten) scripts ->editions!

-plays written in parts (folio/quarto)

-collaboration between audience, actors, friends

-first folio edition post hum (1623)

folding - printing techniques

folio: bad (mistaken, unreliable, etc.) - quarto: good

-early modern English (EME) (not old English!)

-sound quality very important (performance)

-new words (love-sick), now obsolete words (haply - perhabs), words that have changed their meaning (marry- indee, fond - foolish)

-figural characterization through language relationships:

e.g. thee/thou - you (Sie - Du)

-no authorial characterization (e.g. Hamlet)

-hyperbole, puns, irony vs. literal meaning

-distribution of verse & prose

*rhymes

*unrhymed blank verse: iambic pentamer

*prose

-the study of sign & codes of theatre communication

(->what does it mean?)

-area of enquiiry takes account of the complexity of the verbal & non-verbbal sign systems of the theatre ->'theatre codes'

theatre studies:

-focuses primarily on the 'theatrical work'/'theatrical text'

-primarily concerned with the analysis of actual performances on the basis of a semiotics of theatre

English & American literary studies:

-primarily concerned with the analysis & interpretation of dramas as printed texts

-focus particularly on the written sources of theatre performances, on the generic characteristics of dramatic texts, on the interpretation & thematic as well as formal characteristics of individual dramas

-encompasses a variety of approaches

-focus primarily on the 'implied production' already inherent within a dramatic ttext or focus on the analysis of actual performances

->drama is analyssed in view to its production potential

-character of each theatre production is determined to a large degree by the individual stage form

-influences

*the audience's eexperience of the production

*the distance between actors & audience

*the acting style

-plays were performed in amphitheatres

-audience sat in a semicircle around the stage

-lack of stage set & distance from the audience ->a realistic performance was impossible

-characterized by close contact between the actors & the audience

-audience was packed closely on various levels around the three sides of the stage

-stage & seating were 'lit' by natural daylight

-set was minimal ->encouraging audience to use ther imagination to embellish what they saw

-physical features weren't conducive to a realistic imitation of reality

-box-like structure

-lighting

-curtains

-other props

-far more suited to the creation of aesthetic illusion

-actors can act as if an invisible 'fourth wall' separated events on the stage from the audience

->experimentation with stage forms, frequently harks back to old models -indicate of dissatisfaction with this convention

-a theatre performance is s highly complex process of communication, in the course which meaning is constituted simultaneously on a number of levels

*dramatic level -interaction between characters on stage

*theatric level -communication between the cast & the audience

*level of everyday life -social communication about the production & its relation to everyday norms

-distinction between the introduction of epic elementss by characters 'inside the action' & by character's 'outside the action' is based on whether or no the narrating instances is involved in the action of drama

exposition

-refers to the transmission of introductory infromation necessary for an understanding of the initial dramatic events

-function of infofming the reader/audience about the history preceding the actions & introducing them to the time & place of the action & the characters ('referential function')

-intial exposition

-integrated exposition

dramatic introcduction

-serves primarily to

*establish a communication channel between the stage & the audience ('phatic function')

*awaken the interest of the audience

*acclimatize the atmosphere of the play

initial exposition

-inclusion of all expository information in an isolated passage at the beginning of the text, separrate from the action proper

integrated exposition

-expository information is distributed in small quantities throughout the text, woven into the action

classical drama

-prologue (mainstay of epic theatre) is the most common form of exposition

modern drama

-prehistory of the action is generally communicated in the form of expository monologue (/solilloquy) or in the dialogue between the characters

analytic drama

-an extreme variety of integrated expositions occur

-exposition continues throughout the entire action/text

-action consists primarily in the gradual disclosure of the past events that have led to the initial situation

-term refers to a succesion of remarks & countermarks (/'utterances) between two ('duologue') or more ('polylogue') characters

-characters exchange thoughts/opinions, discuss a topic/plot an intigue

-often reffered to as the basic structure of drama

-isn't restricted to this genre

-consider

*the length of iindividual utterances

*distribution of contributions among the characters

*frequency with which the role of the speaker changes

-temporal relations between the various utterancces can also yield important clues for interpretation

-'syntagmatics' (logical coherence) of the dialogue

*structure of the logical interaction between the individual parts of an utterance

*relationship of an utterance to previous ones by thhe same character

*preceding remarks by other character

(real conversation in everyday life primarily fulfill communicative & social needs)

dramatic dialogues

-can serve quite different purposes

-set the aaction of drama in motion

-serve as a medium for

*conflict

*clarification of opinions

*expounding central themes

-functions of dialogue are subject to historical change

-not a part of drama but a poem or other non-dramatic composition in the form of a soliloquy

-monological tendencies in dialogue

*occcur when there is a considerable discrepancy between the lenght & frequency of the contributionns ->result: one character becomes dominant

*considerable consensus between two partnerers in a dialogue

-dialogical tendencies in monologue & soliloquy

*speaker adresses an absent figure/object

-occurs at the beginning of a play

-characters & audience are provided with identical information

-literary texts & films

*term 'action' in its widest sense implies a change/perpetuation of a situation brought about by the characters

-4 factors influence the behavior & therefore the development of the action

*abilities *needs *motivation *intention

-composed of scenes & acts

-classical form of the tragedy corresponds to the ideal of a largely closed form consisting of 5 acts

I introduction

II development of the conflict

III climax & beginning of the protagonist's tragic descent

IV moment of delay

V catastrophe (dénouement)

-majority of interpretations

*characters are treated as real, existing individuals

*major emphasis placed on the psychologies of the character & their relationsips to one another

->based on a realistic/mimetic understanding of literary characters

-realistic/mimetic understanding of literary characters

*assumes that characters are 'true to life' & 'imitate' real people

-structuralist theories of drama & narrative

*stress the functional roles performed by characters

*consider characters as agents/functions of the plot

*refer to characters as 'actants'

-refers to all the literary characters who appear in a plac

-first act of a drama is usually preceded by a list of the dramatis personae

-distinction between main characters & minor characters

->boundary is permeable

-structure of the dramatis personae in plays, narratives & films can be simplified by means of graphic presentation of their relationships to each other

-describes the dynamic structure of the dramatis personae in a drama, novel & film

-doesn't merely refer to the traits of the various characters

-encompasses the characters & their relationships through the text

-displays a high degree of historical & cultural variability

-alters the number of characters present on the stage

-can ascertain how important a single character is for the play

numbeer of configurations in which a character participate ->indexx of his status & the relationship between the characters

-coined by Pfister

-

-describes the individual

-describes the more/less restricted point of view of reality of eevery character, as determined by 3 major factors

*characters level of knowledge

*character's psychologycal disposition

*character's ideological persuasions

-encompasses all features that constitute a chararcter & his subjective model of reality/view of the fictional world

-ccoined by theorists of drama in order to describe the entirety of character perspectives & their relationships to each other

-proved useful in the analysis of narrative texts

-perspective structure of a text is basedd on the selection & combination of character perspectives ->2 aspects are to be taken into consideration

*paradigmatic dimension: consisting of the selection of character perspective

*syntagmatic dimension: refers to the combination of perspectives

->both relevant for the evaluattion of characters

-closed perspecitve strructure:

diverse character perspective ultimately converge on one point, conveying the impression of a unitary view of the world

-open perspective structure:

occurs when a drama presents no such convergence point & individual character perspectives are divergent

-personification

a figure embodies/personifies a single characteristic

-individual

a figure who has so many different features that he seems to have a as complex character as a real human being

->large variety of charcters in between

-refers to a character who has few secific human characteristics & individual features or who is characterized (e.g.) as a representative e of a social class

-distinction between various types

*psychological type: embodies a particular mode of human behavior

*social type: based on a particular profession/social class

*wide variety of ethnic, regiona, national & gender stereotyppes

-supplied with a large number of characteristics

-main emphasis is placed on the uniqueness & personal individuality of succh characters

->they are presented as multi-facetted & charaterized by a large number of personal traits =>thought to resemble genuine human beings

-flat chracters

=one-dimensiona

-round characters

=multi-dimensional

-only partially represented on stage (characters often refer to other fictional places, in which they claim to have been in the period between their appearances on stage)

-spectrum of possibilities for the representation of stage

*realistic representation: a large number of props are used to create the illusion of the ficitonal location

*neutral representation: only a few optical signal giving places form the location

*anti-illusionist, symbolist representation: props don't serve to create the illusion of a realistic fictional location

-attempts to engaage the imagination of the audience

-can be employed to describe the location of the action/to reffer to particular props or imaginary figures

->isn't visibble on stage

-is filtered through the perspective of the individual character who describes his surroundings

-can convey information that coulnd't be represented in concrete form on stage

-various categorres developed by theorists of narrative to describe temporal structures

include *chronological & anchhronic representation

*flashforwards & flashbaks *pauses & ellipses

-actual performance time: lenght of an individual film/a theatre performance

-fictional time: duration spanned by the stage events

-period of time that is represented on stage

-period about which the audience is informed in the course of a performance