Dramatic World Research Articles

Theatrical Pragmatics: The Actor-Audience Relationship from the Mystery Cycles to the Early Tudor Comedies

Theatrical Pragmatics: The Actor-Audience Relationship from the Mystery Cycles to the Early Tudor Comedies Hans.Jurgen Diller For the purposes of my paper I offer the following definition of a dramatic performance: real people (the audience) perceive real utterances and real actions performed by other real people (the actors). The real utterances and the real actions represent fictitious or historical utterances and actions by fictitious or historical people (the dramatis personae). The utterances are of course special kinds of actions and receive special mention merely for the sake of clarity. The relationship described here is normal for drama,l although it is not the only one. Representation can be fruitfully discussed as a relationship between two worlds. And the question "How do we get from one world to the othe!?" that is so important in possible-world semantics is also of paramount importance in the study of drama. Here, however, it is not merely a theoretical but also an eminently practical question. In our modem theaters the lights go out, the curtain opens, etc. These conventions symbolically annihilate our own "ordinary world" (WO) and help us to concentrate on the fictitious "dramatic world" (W4).2 The symbolic annhilation of the "ordinary world" is a way of suggesting that the "dramatic world" leads an independent existence from our own. The people in that world behave as if we did not exist. The convention that makes such behavior possible is often referred to as "the fourth wall." This convention is often breached, but HANS-JORGBN DD..LBR, Professor of BnsIish at Rubr-UniV6l!iitilt Bochum. West Germany, is th6 author of Redelormen des englLrchm Misterlenspiels, on the English translation of which he is currently working. 156 Hans-lurgen Diller 157 even in the breach it asserts itself: the· breach would not be effective without the convention. It is a commonplace of theatrical .criticism that medieval and Renaissance drama did not know the "fourth wall," nor perhaps any other wall. This commonplace , however, gives us a purely negative definition of the play-audience relationship in pre-classical drama. It may even suggest that the invisible wall could be penetrated at will in those days. This was certainly not the case, and no dramatic art would be possible on such an assumption. In a theater with no switch-off lighting and no curtains, the only way of getting ·from Wo to W4 was via the word. But not only was getting into or establishing W4 more difficult than it is in the modem theater, since sustaining it was in fact also much more challenging. For a jostling crowd with no numbered seats whose members can see not only the play but also each other, can communicate with each other, and can perhaps take a stroll across the green-such a crowd must be far more intractable than a modem theater public whose members have been conveniently isolated in the darkness and comfort of their seats. Addressing the audience even from within the play may not have been a threat to the integrity of the W4 but rather a way of keeping the audience ''hooked.'' Believing, then, on a priori grounds that addressing the audience was an important strategy to establish and sustain the W4, I must try to discover when in fact the audience was addressed. Most of the time, the answer is easy: when there is no one on stage for whom the speech acts produced can be possibly relevant. If, for instance, Joseph exclaims "oa 6a all Olde men to me take tent,"3 and nothing in the preceding dialogue justifies the assumption that there are any other old men standing around, then we are forced to·conclude that Joseph is in fact addressing (the old men in) the audience. But when a shepherd in the Second Shepherds' Play complains about the inclemencies of the weather and vents his grief against social evils, we might still assume that.he is merely seeking relief in speaking to himself-until he explicitly states that he does in fact find such relief: It dos me good, as I walk thus by myn oone, Of this warld for to talk in maner of mone.4...

Fiksionaliteit in die Dramawêreld

The fictional drama world differs from the fictional world encountered in other literary genres, and the difference can be traced back to the link of the text with the performance.A general, traditional view is that the fictional world of the dramatic text takes place in a fictional “here and now” .Elam has postulated a theory following a study of the fictional drama world. He uses a term from logical semantics, viz. the “theory of possible worlds” and adjusts this to enable him to speak of a dramatic possible world. Elam mentions three aspects which help towards the establishment of the fictional drama world, viz.the discovery of this world in medias res; the making specific of this world through the fictional characters; and the representation of this world in the performance.Elam’s exposition still does not indicate which aspects of the fictional drama world within the text coincide with or differ from those in the performance. The fictionality of the drama world is linked to the aspect of the ostensible, and it is this link (implied in the text and edited in the performance) which characterizes the specific nature of the fictional in the drama genre and which distinguishes this genre from other literary genres.

Occupation and Personality in Television Dramas

In recent years, the possibility that the speech and actions of people in television's dramatic world might influence viewers' understanding of the personalities of others and themselves has received little attention. The first step to exploring that possibility is to chart the personality types which populate television, and to understand the reasons for their existence. This study examines television industry's view of the various personality dimen sions the audience will attribute to characters. The method is to apply an established personality inventory to descriptions creators of prime-time dramas share regarding criminals, law enforcement agents, blue-collar workers, and other citizens. The one-sided view of human nature that is disclosed raises important questions about the consequences of television's portrayals for people using them for social comparison or as indicators of the human condition.

Between Past and Future: The Dramatic World of Rossini in "Mosè in Egitto" and "Moïse et Pharaon"

this piece in his fundamental catalog of Rossini's autographs, The Operas of Rossini: Problems of Textual Criticism in Nineteenth-Century Opera (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1970; I have not been able to consult this work directly, but cite it from the monograph of Paolo Isotta [see fn. 4]). The cantique, not found in the Italian edition, is present in the original French libretto published for the first performance at the Opera. (The first French edition of the libretto has been reprinted by Isotta [see fn. 4]; the cantique is at p. 101.) Nonetheless it is lacking in the 1827 score published by Troupenas, a publication overseen by Rossini himself and thus considered the official, if not definitive, text of the French version. Until this problem is

The Dramatic World of "Saint" Genet

The Dramatic World of "Saint" Genet

Kyogen for Kids: An Examination into the Adaptability of the Japanese Comic Interlude to Western Children's Audiences

KYOGEN FOR KIDS: AN EXAMINATION INTO THE ADAPTABILITY OF THE JAPANESE COMIC INTERLUDE TO WESTERN CHILDREN'S AUDIENCES Children's literature has long been under the mystical spell of the Orient. Tales of the "Arabian Nights," the travels of Marco Polo, and Hans Christian Andersen's beautiful tale of "The Nightingale," have provided feasts for the imagination for over a century. There is something about these faraway lands that stirs the wonder in a child's fancy. It is not surprising then that writers of children's fiction have, over the years, been quick to perceive this interest and have capitalized on it with numerous tales and novels of a pseudo-oriental nature. No less aware, yet somewhat more discriminating, are the children's playwrights who in the post-World War II era have produced a number of these oriental exploitations for the unwary child audience. A few, like Madge Miller's The Land of The Dragon and Betty Jean Lifton's Kap the Ka»»a, warrant some attention while the vast majority (like t ose in children's fiction) are poorly conceived and degrading to both the oriental culture they try hopelessly to emulate and to the child audience compelled to sit through such abominations. One of the more interesting oriental adaptations, the short Brecht plays (performed together) , He Who Says Yes and He Who Says No, inspired by the Japanese Noh drama, have ""Eeen includecTEy Lowell Swortzell in his anthology of plays for children, All The World' s A Stage . These pieces were not written with children specifically in mind but would go far in charming and enlightening the juvenile theatre-goer. The inclusion of Brecht in this anthology for children, particularly when he is anthologized along with others primarily associated with the adult drama, prompts a question: What makes a dramatic work ostensibly for adults popular with children? It can safely be argued I think that, though some children could find pleasure in its performance, George Bernard Shaw's Androcles and the Lion is best suited to the adult stage, yet Aurand Harris ' s Commedia dell 'Arte rendition of the same tale attracts hearty applause and laughter from young and old alike. This brings up a second question related to the first: What makes certain performing styles traditionally adult (e.g. the Italian Commedia) successful for the child audience ? In the case of Commedia it is the recognizable comic types, the simple yet action-packed plot, and the abundant slap-stick comedy which make it a crowd pleaser for all ages. If committed children's dramatists wish to explore similar styles to expand their theatrical possibilities, it may be to the East that they once again turn, particularly to the islands of Japan and to an ancient, rustic performing art form identified as "Kyogen." An indication that perhaps Japanese Kyogen has a potential audience among America's young comes from Francelia Butler, who in her 1977 anthology, Sharing Literature with Children includes the Kyogen piece "BusuT" Butler In including the piece without special alteration for children justifies the form's theatrical possibilities by stating: In some respects they [Kyogen] resemble the Western theater of the absurd in their restraint and their concern with social comment. . . . The broad humor and brevity of ["Busu"] make it a good choice for acting by or for children, (p. 142) Perhaps then, as the styles of Italian Commedia dell 'Arte and the Moliere-inspired French farce have found proper niches within the realm of dramatic literature for children, so too will the Japanese Kyogen. Before the Western audience may stand in a position to evaluate the Kyogen' s potential, it remains a necessity to know something of the origin and practice of the form in its native land and of the classic Noh Drama to which, by tradition, the Kyogen is inextricably fused. There is no Western counterpart to the dramatic world of the Noh; it is almost wholly wrapped up in the history and culture of Japan. Western concepts of stage setting, acting, and musical accompaniment find no parallel in this stark yet poetic form. The production is given on a simple stage floor of highly polished wood connected to the...

Imitation and Evolution: The Discussion of Rhetorical Imitation in Cicero De Oratore 2. 87-97 and Some Related Problems of Ciceronian Theory

Previous articleNext article No AccessImitation and Evolution: The Discussion of Rhetorical Imitation in Cicero De Oratore 2. 87-97 and Some Related Problems of Ciceronian TheoryElaine FanthamElaine Fantham Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Classical Philology Volume 73, Number 1Jan., 1978 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/366388 Views: 447Total views on this site Citations: 12Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1978 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Jamey E. Graham Mimesis, Economy, and Civilization in Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, Modern Philology 116, no.11 (Jul 2018): 20–44.https://doi.org/10.1086/697600 Bibliography, (Nov 2011): 529–564.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444354188.biblioSteven H. Rutledge Tacitus' Dialogus de Oratoribus, (Nov 2011): 62–83.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444354188.ch4Charles Guérin La persona oratoire entre rhétorique, biographie et histoire, Interférences , no.55 (Jan 2009).https://doi.org/10.4000/interferences.897John Muckelbauer Imitation and Invention in Antiquity: An Historical-Theoretical Revision, Rhetorica 21, no.22 (May 2003): 61–88.https://doi.org/10.1525/rh.2003.21.2.61Elaine Fantham The Concept of Nature and Human Nature in Quintilian's Psychology and Theory of Instruction, Rhetorica 13, no.22 (May 1995): 125–136.https://doi.org/10.1525/rh.1995.13.2.125George Alexander Kennedy The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, 27 (Mar 2008).https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300063George A. Kennedy The evolution of a theory of artistic prose, (Jan 1990): 184–199.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300063.006George A. Kennedy, Doreen C. Innes Hellenistic literary and philosophical scholarship, (Jan 1990): 200–219.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300063.007Elaine Fantham The growth of literature and criticism at Rome, (Jan 1990): 220–244.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300063.008Dorren C. Innes Augustan Critics, (Jan 1990): 245–273.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300063.009Elaine Fantham Latin Criticism of the Early Empire, (Jan 1990): 274–296.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300063.010

Insanity and the Rational Man in the Plays of David Storey

THE VERSE WHICH a provincial schoolteacher recites to his wife in act one of David Storey's first play, The Restoration of Arnold Middleton, may well stand as an epigraph for the Yorkshireman's entire dramatic output. In six of the first seven plays which Storey has written since 1966, at least one character is on the verge of insanity, an idiot or a certifiable lunatic. To grasp Storey's dramatic use of madness which is frequently at the center, occasionally on the periphery of his work, is to understand an artist's attempt to reconcile himself to a bewildering universe where the line between sanity and insanity is often invisible. Unlike those characters of Pirandello who was also obsessed by the relativism of sanity, Storey's do not question the fact of reality. His dramatic world is an artist's conscious rendering of the real one, and the question which Storey's characters must ask themselves is, "How does one cope with the reality one is forced to accept?" For some of them, to lose the mind is to gain the self.

Pleberio's World

Much contemporary criticism presents the final speech of Pleberio in Fernando de Rojas’ La Celestina as authorial philosophical pessimism. This view, based upon residual nineteenth-century critical habits, assumes what it claims to demonstrate. Pleberio and his dramatic world appear differently if we begin with the beginning, where other characters create roles for him in their private dramas, in contrast to his ineffective personal role. All the principal characters, Pleberio included, create their world and are created by it. They are united also by their common substitution of metaphors of commerce and exchange for the language of feelings and values. Pleberio the merchant and Celestina the bawd necessarily coexist in the system of La Celestina, as analysis of language and events makes clear. His final protest is an entrepreneur’s confused desperation on facing the world he has made. The last words allude to a context (“Salve Regina”) that reverses this world’s reversals.

Physical Imagery in the Works of Griselda Gambaro

ONE OF LATIN AMERICA'S more prominent dramatists is Griselda Gambaro of Argentina. Her reputation is well established in her own country and she has begun to gain recognition in the United States as her plays have become more readily available. Her dramatic world has been compared to the Theatre of the Absurd in general. In addition, Tamara Holzapfel has already stated her belief that Gambaro fulfills the "basic requisites of the theatre as envisioned by Artaud by using non-rhetorical language integrated with gestures and all kinds of sound, by incorporating psychological cruelty and physical violence, and by assigning primary importance to the mise-en-scene." It is the purpose of this paper to offer a detailed examination of the four available plays of Gambaro in relation to the Artaudian theories on the importance of physical imagery on stage.

Advising and Ordering: Daytime, Prime Time

The patterns of advice-giving and receiving and order-giving and receiving among television's dramatic characters provide an efficient and economical way in which to study the relationships between knowledge, activity, and sex of characters seen on the home screen. In addition, the study of these patterns allows comparison of the dramatic world of daytime TV addressed primarily to women with that of prime time. This article is a summary of some of the findings from a study on the advising and ordering patterns of men and women in soap operas and evening dramas. This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/55 Advising and Ordering: Daytime, by Joseph Turow Women characters in teleuision dramas sometimes advise and direct men-but usually on “feminine” matters. Prime Time The patterns of advice-giving and receiving and order-giving and receiving among television’s dramatic characters provide an efficient and economical way in which to study the relationships between knowledge, activity, and sex of characters seen on the home screen. In addition, the study of these patterns allows comparison of the dramatic world of daytime TV-addressed primarily to women-with that of prime time. This article is a summary of some of the findings from a study on the advising and ordering patterns of men and women in soap operas and evening dramas.1 A sample of 12 hours of daytime and 12 hours of prime-time programming was analyzed. The general characteristics of the programs and of all the speaking characters were noted. At the same time, every advising and ordering interaction (“episode”) between the sexes was systematically observed and coded for (a) the name or label of the giver and receiver (whose characteristics were recorded along with those of other speaking characters), (b) the general area of the knowledge discussed, and (c) the correctness of the advice or order in the episode. Areas of knowledge were grouped into (a) traditionally “feminine” categories such as love, the family, the home, personal problems, and the arts; (b) traditionally “masculine” categories like business, law, government, crime, and coping with danger; and (c) “neutral” categories, which were defined as directives given in non-business contexts or simple dealings between the interactors and a third party (examples: “Close the door!” or “Tell Murray to close the door!”). The giving of advice and orders by doctors was coded as an area of male expertise, while knowledge about health in a nonprofessional or business context was coded as an area of female expertise. Table 1 shows the number and classification of all advising and ordering episodes by the sex of the advice and order-givers and by the subject category of the directives given. Since this study was only concerned with advising and ordering between the sexes, all directives by males were received by females and vice versa. It should also be noted that for purposes of the pres1 The data presented here are taken from a larger investigation of the effects of audience change on T V program content. An exposition of the full study may be obtained from the author. Joseph Turow is a Ph.D. candidate in Communications at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Dramatic World of Harold Pinter: Its Basis in Ritual

The Dramatic World of Harold Pinter: Its Basis in Ritual

The Dramatic World of Harold Pinter: Its Basis in Ritual

The Dramatic World of Harold Pinter: Its Basis in Ritual

Harold Pinter by Alrene Sykes, and: The Dramatic World of Harold Pinter-Its Basis in Ritual by Katherine H. Burkman (review)

Harold Pinter by Alrene Sykes, and: The Dramatic World of Harold Pinter-Its Basis in Ritual by Katherine H. Burkman (review)

THE DRAMATIC WORLD OF DANIEL CASPER VON LOHENSTEIN

German Life and LettersVolume 19, Issue 3 p. 161-166 THE DRAMATIC WORLD OF DANIEL CASPER VON LOHENSTEIN HUGO BEKKER, HUGO BEKKERSearch for more papers by this author HUGO BEKKER, HUGO BEKKERSearch for more papers by this author First published: April 1966 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0483.1966.tb01247.xCitations: 1Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume19, Issue3April 1966Pages 161-166 RelatedInformation

A Freudian Character in Lope de Vega

One of the most attractive aspects of our national theatre is that it continually offers the most unexpected surprises. These surprises are multiplied within a dramatic world as extensive as that created by Lope de Vega. Furthermore, these surprises are seen in their fullest clarity when the illuminating light of modern ideas are turned on the art forms of the seventeenth century. This happens when we reread The Outrageous Saint. At first this comedy makes a very unsatisfactory impression. From a normal point of view, the monstrousness of the theme seems explicable only by supposing that Lope, always impulsive, had given way to irresponsible and uncontrolled fantasies. But after reading Freud and the works of other modern psychoanalysts—something that at first sight appears irrelevant to the understanding of an author of the Golden Age—we realize that Lope's play was far in advance of its time.