Wellmade Play ENGL 2306 Introduction to Drama Friday November 5 2010 A type of play that rose to prominence in the nineteenth century and that relied for its effect on clever casual plotting and a series of startling discoveries or revelations rather than on subtleties of charac ID: 566711
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Slide1
Beyond the“Well-made Play”
ENGL 2306 – Introduction to Drama
Friday, November 5, 2010Slide2
“A type of play that rose to prominence in the nineteenth century and that relied for its effect on clever, casual plotting and a series of startling discoveries or revelations rather than on subtleties of character or language” (
12 Plays
737).Includes Ibsen’s A Doll House and, to some extent, Miller’s Death of a Salesman.Freytag’s method of analysis works best with this type of play.
Well-made PlaySlide3
“A style of writing or acting meant to mimic closely the patterns of ordinary life” (12 Plays
734).
Often used synonymously with realism.Just like realism, naturalism achieved its initial peak of popularity during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
NaturalismSlide4
…in terms of dramas that do not necessarily conform to the definition of a well-made play
.
ExpressionismWhich was…Miller’s Death of a SalesmanPasticheWhich was…
Churchill’s
Top Girls
What we’ve already witnessed…Slide5
“A revolutionary movement encompassing all of the creative arts that had its roots in the 1890s, a transitional period....Modernism exploded onto the international scene in the aftermath of World War I, a traumatic transcontinental event that physically devastated and psychologically disillusioned the West in an entirely unprecedented way” (
Bedford Glossary
307).Expressionism was one of the many forms that came out of this aesthetic/literary movement.ModernismSlide6
“A term referring to certain radically experimental works of literature and art produced after World War II....Much of postmodernist writing reveals and highlights the alienation of individuals and the meaninglessness of human existence. Postmodernists frequently stress that humans desperately (and ultimately unsuccessfully) cling to illusions of security to conceal and forget the void over which their lives are perched” (
Bedford Glossary
397).PostmodernismSlide7
Pastiche is a form of aesthetic, cultural, and literary production that derives from postmodernism
.
Other oft-used types of creative and writing styles are associated with postmodernism. Many of these appear in Churchill’s Top Girls.Postmodernism (cont.)Slide8
“The name given by Bertold Brecht to a theatrical style emphasizing the relationship between form and ideology. It is characterized by brief scenes, narrative breaks, political and historical themes, an analytical (rather than emotional) tone, and characters with whom it is difficult to feel empathy” (
12 Plays
732).Examples from Top Girls?Epic theaterSlide9
“Theatrical style, prominent in the mid-twentieth century, that seeks to dramatize the absurdity of modern life. Conventions of the style include disjointed or elliptical plotlines, disaffected characters, nonnaturalistic dialogue, and often black comedy” (
12 Plays
729).Examples from Top Girls?Theater of the AbsurdSlide10
“Term [that describes] a type of theater using light, sound, spectacle, and other primarily nonverbal forms of communication, intended to shock audiences out of complacency through images of cruelty and destruction” (
12 Plays
731).Examples from Top Girls?Theater of Cruelty