2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
Drama is a form of literary work that allows in a short plot to show the conflicts of society, the feelings and relationships of the characters, to reveal moral issues. Tragedy, comedy and even modern sketches are all varieties of this art that originated in ancient Greece.
Drama: a book with complex character
In translation from Greek the word "drama" means "to act". Drama (definition in literature) is a work that exposes the conflict between characters. The character of the characters is revealed through actions, and the soul - through dialogues. The works of this genre have a dynamic plot, composed through the dialogues of characters, less often - monologues or polylogues.
The author's language is present only as remarks. They have a technical function, characterizing the characters and describing the scene.
Drama as a kind of literature is composed according to classical rules.
It consists of several parts, divided into acts. There are several heroes in it, one developed storyline that sets the axis of the work. A small number of events occur throughout the entire work. If the work is created for staging, then its volume should not exceed 80 pages. Such a script or play is equal to 3-4 hours of action on stage.
Ancient literature
Initially, the drama was formed on the basis of the cult of the god of fertility Dionysius, included songs and dances. The actors put on skins, masks on their faces and sang praises. There were competitions between tragedians and comedians. Famous playwrights - Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripilus, Aristophanes - famous authors of Ancient Greece.
Classic drama includes different genres. There are a lot of works of literature that belong to this type of art: this is tragedy, comedy and drama itself. Tragicomedy, so popular in Russian schools, has been formed at the junction.
Development of drama on the example of tragedy
Literally, the word "tragedy" means "goat song". She was associated with autumn sadness, when the god of winemaking went into hibernation, or metaphorically died. Aeschylus is considered the founder of tragedy, he improved the form and included a second actor in the action. Sophocles added a third character. Emotional moves are expressed through mourning, expression of condolences, horror, anger. The choir, with the help of praises, set the right tone.
Tragedy in Ancient Greece consisted ofsix classical components: myth, character development, pertinent and essential opinion, prosaic and metrical language, music, and spectacle. Tragedy captures the soul and makes suffering known.
In its unchanged form, the tragedy comes to the Renaissance, where it becomes popular again. Shakespeare's heroes experience fate in a new way. Now social conditions matter more than the games of the gods. The famous "King Lear", "Othello", "Hamlet" to this day are a reader for young playwrights and actors.
In the Age of Enlightenment, actors fight over ideas. Schiller's famous tragedies The Robbers and Cunning and Love were as popular as Goethe's Egmont and Goetz von Berlichingen.
Romanticism reveals the conflict, but already between the inner and outer worlds of the characters. Byron, Hugo work in the genre of tragedy.
Big Literary Family
Drama in literature is primarily a large creative category. The original progenitor of tragedy and comedy has now acquired new family members. Modern representatives are melodrama, vaudeville, sketch. Melodrama as a kind of literature divides heroes into "good" and "bad" people: the characters have polar moral principles. The conflict occurs between the values of the characters, and as a result, an unexpected solution is found. Vaudeville and sketch are combined art forms.
Expressive genres in literature
However, in addition to dramaturgy, there are other expressive genresliterature. The table will help to classify what we will now analyze in some detail.
Novella is a kind of short story: a prose short work with a sharp plot and a neutral style of narration. There is no psychological overtones and an unexpected ending, as in a melodrama.
Ode - obsolete today, but very popular at the end of the 18th century, a solemn work that was expressed through poetry or poetry set to music.
Essay - a fact of real life, a reliable story.
The story is an epic genre about the life of a hero or several characters, showing successive episodes from life. More in length than a short story, but less of a novel.
A poem is a story in poetic form.
Story - a smaller brother of the story, where one or more events from the life of the hero are mentioned. Actions are not long in time, and there are few actors. As a rule, most of the information comes from an invisible narrator. The story and the poem are the most popular genres of literary works.
A novel is a great narrative work, in which there are several storylines that affect a significant period of a person's life or the whole life of a person. The characters are equivalent, the plot reveals socially significant tasks and problems.
Epic - a major work about significant national or historical events. Written in the form of prose or poetry. Authors often call epics novels, but it differs from the latter in the content of folk life,exposing the way of life of all sectors of society and a wide geographical and historical coverage.
Ballad is a lyrical-epic poem, where the historical line that runs through the entire plot is clearly expressed. A ballad differs from a lyric poem in content. In the latter, the author seeks to express his inner feelings, instead of the plot. Also, the verses are shorter.
A song is an expression of an idea, feelings, plot through verses set to music. It is divided into parts, where the refrain is the chorus, and the developing plot is the verses.
Folk, historical, lyrical, heroic songs are known. It is believed that songs and ballads are the most ancient genres of literature.
The table below will help you get a general idea of the types of creative literature categories.
Form Literature
| Epos | Lyrics | Drama |
| Fable | Anthem | Vaudeville |
| Epic | Invective | Sketch |
| Legend | Madrigal | Comedy |
| Novel | Ode | Tragedy |
| Story | Song | Drama |
| Story | Sonnet | Melodrama |
| Sketch | Romance | Tragicomedy |
| Romance | Message | |
| Fairy tale | Elegy | |
| Epic | Poem | |
| Epitaph | ||
| Epigram | ||
The birth of Russian dramaturgy
The slow and measured first quarter of the 19th century was marked by the rapid spread of dramatic literature.
On the one hand, this is certainly due to the interest in the theater, where a whole galaxy of talented artists and writers appears. On the other hand, during this period, there is a fashion for home readings and literary living rooms. The tragedies of Kryukovsky, Ozerov, Plavilshchikov, Viskovagov, Gruzintsev, Glinka, Zotov are popular. Ivanov's "Marfa Posadnitsa, or the Conquest of Novgorod" by Ivanov enjoys great success.
Opposition of classics and originality
The critic P. A. Katenin tried to defend the classical form of the genre, which is why he translated Corneille and Racine. At the beginning of the 19th century, drama in literature was a copy of French plays. The concept of "false-classical tragedy" appears, and Kotzebue's works fall under attack. The core of critical attacks is the Dramatic Herald, published by Yazykov since 1808. One of the most prolific playwrights of that time was Shakhovsky. More than 100 plays have come from his pen. He was famous for his comedies, in which the inner weakness of the play, according to the critics of experts, was covered by the brilliance of the situation and sham effects.
New genres of drama in literature
Vaudeville for Russianmentality was first composed by Khmelnitsky. He was primarily a talented translator. So, his frank imitations of the French drama became famous: "Castles in the Air", "Talker", "Indecisive".
Griboyedov's comedy "Woe from Wit" is the first Russian book of manners, which was brilliantly done in the style and pattern of French plays. This work, published in 1831, is still a great success today.
English literature also had a great influence on the formation of Russian drama. For example, even Belinsky noticed that Pushkin turned out Shakespeare's Boris Godunov. Pushkin seems to freely reshape the portraits of the heroes of the king of tragedy. But Russian characters do not act under the banner of passion, but under the yoke of rock drama.
Examples of Lermontov's works, untenable in the artistic sense, but interesting as material about the poet's attitude, allow one to penetrate into the inner world of a brilliant stylist. Gogol's "Inspector General" is a drama-bomb that brought the problems of bureaucracy to public ridicule. After the success of Gogol in Russia, there is a fashion for a Russian character, and not for a translated carbon paper from European literature.
Drama in literature is also the work of Turgenev, who worked on this genre in the late 40s and early 50s. His plays "The Freeloader", "Breakfast at the Leader's", "The Bachelor", "Provincial" are still included in the theatrical repertoire.
More natural lookingheroes acquire in the works of the middle of the 19th century. For example, Pisemsky's character from "A Bitter Fate" is a village peasant in full size and without embellishment. The author's comedies "Baal", "Enlightened Time", "Financial Genius" did not last long on the stage.
Russian Shakespeare
Drama in Russian literature would not exist in its form without Ostrovsky's name. This author managed not only to earn people's love, for 40 years Ostrovsky staged about 50 plays, but also to instill in the audience a taste for good and complex works. Dobrolyubov called the work of Alexander Nikolaevich "the plays of life." All texts are sustained like a classic drama. The definition in the literature of Ostrovsky's plays is universal dramas. The author tries not only to show the situation, but also looks for the roots of the problem in the characters' characters, the environment.
He managed to present to the public not just heroes, but psychological types in which it is so easy to see themselves. The gifted playwright wrote sparkling comedies ("Balzaminov's Marriage"), chilling tragedies ("Thunderstorm"), made the audience cry, wonder, empathize. His works are a treasure trove of Russian speech.
Drama as a kind of literature in Russia, as an original school of Ostrovsky's followers, arises already during the life of the master. Vivid imitators of his talent were Potekhin, Dyachenko, Krylov, Solovyov, Chernyshev, Vladykin, Chaev, Lvov and Antropov. All of them were outstanding playwrights of the second half of the 19th century. They were masters of theatrical technique,stage action.
The next stage in the development of dramatic writing is the industrial plot. The most interesting representatives of the latest dramaturgy are Potekhin, Shpazhinsky, Tarnovsky, Sumbatov, A. Suvorin, Karpov.
L. Tolstoy used drama as a tool to inform the masses, releasing The Power of Darkness and The Fruits of Enlightenment.
In the 60s, the genre of historical chronicles appeared as a drama. Examples of Ostrovsky's works "Minin-Sukhoruk", "Voevoda", "Vasilisa Melentievna" are the brightest examples of this rare genre. The trilogy of Count A. K. Tolstoy: "The Death of Ivan the Terrible", "Tsar Feodor Ioannovich" and "Tsar Boris", as well as the chronicles of Chaev ("Tsar Vasily Shuisky") are distinguished by the same advantages. Crackling drama is inherent in the works of Averkin: "Mamay's Massacre", "Comedy about the Russian nobleman Frol Skobeev", "Old Kashira".
Modern dramaturgy
Today, drama continues to develop, but at the same time it is built according to all the classical laws of the genre.
In today's Russia, drama in literature is such names as Edward Radzinsky, Nikolai Erdman, Mikhail Chusov. As boundaries and conventions are erased, lyrical and conflictual themes come to the fore that affect Wystan Auden, Thomas Bernhard and Martin McDonagh.
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