THEA 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Main Plot, Dramatic Structure, Fourth Wall
Document Summary
Three types of literature: poetry, drama, prose. Each one has its own recognizable style: short story and novels are the most popular ways for narratives to be delivered. What is a play: an acting out of a dialogue, an acted out narrative. Two types of plays: play as literature, play as performance. Narration in a play: most of the times there is no narrator, and the audience learns as the play goes, someones one of the characters might break the fourth wall and play as the narrator. Aristotle"s poetics : what he considers the six major elements of drama: Plot, character, thought (theme), diction (language), music (rhythm), and spectacle (notable performance element: most of these relate directly to our contemporary idea of drama, he was quite descriptive in the way he communicated his ideas. Major dramatic question : is the main question of the story that drives the narrative. Hamlet will hamlet avenge his father? etc.
