BBL 3217 POETRY AND DRAMA IN ENGLISH

1. 13.04.2013 BBL 3217 POETRY AND DRAMA IN ENGLISH

2. LECTURER • Dr. Manimangai Mani • Room : No. 4 MuziumWarisanMelayu, Blok C FakultiBahasaModendanKomunikasi, Universiti Putra Malaysia. • Mobile No.: 016-5316715 • E-mail : manimanggai@hotmail.com

3. Drama • Greek Play • Oedipus by Sophocles • Shakespearean Play • King Lear • Modern Play • The Importance of Being Earnest

4. Additional drama • The Octoroon by Dion Boucicault

5. Major literary aspects of drama: • Text • Character • Plot • Structure • Point of view • Language • Tone • Symbolism • Theme

6. The Text • It is a plan to bring the play into action on a the stage. • The features of texts are: • The Dialogue • Monologue • Stage Directions

7. Dialogue – is the conversation of two or more characters. • Monologue – is spoken by a single character who is usually alone onstage • Stage directions – the playwright’s instructions about facial and vocal expression, movement and action, gesture and body language, stage appearance, lighting etc.

8. Character • Characters are persons that the playwright creates to embody the play’s actions, ideas, and attitudes. • Protagonist - is the central character • Antagonist – usually opposes the central character

9. Types of characters • Round character – dynamic, developing and growing character – has the ability to make decisions • Flat character – static, fixed and unchanging character • Realistic characters – designed to seem like individualized women and men; they are given thoughts, desires, motives, personalities and lives of their own.

10. Nonrealistic characters – they are often undeveloped and symbolic. • Stereotype or stock characters – unindividualized characters whose actions and speeches make them seem to be taken from a mold. Ex: corrupt politician, shrewish wife etc.

11. Ancillary characters- they set off or highlight the protagonist and provide insight into action • i. Foil – a foil is a character that is to be compared and contrasted with the protagonist. • ii. Choric figure – is loosely connected to the choruses of ancient drama. Usually a single character who is often a confidant of the protagonist.

12. iii. raisonneur (commentator) - when the choric figure expresses ideas about the play’s major issues and actions. • iv. Symbolic characters - the characters themselves will symbolize ideas, moral values, religious concepts, way of life or other abstractions.

13. Plot • Plays are made up of series of sequential and related actions and incidents. • The actions are connected by chronology- the logic of time and plot which is a connected plan or patterns of causation. • The impulse controlling the connections is conflict, which refers to the people or circumstances (the antagonist) – that protagonist tries to overcome.

14. Structure • It is the play’s pattern of organization. • Many traditional plays have elements that constitute a five-stage structure: • Exposition or introduction • Complication and development • Crisis or climax • Falling action • Denouement, resolution or catastrophe.

15. The Freytag Pyramid

16. Point of View • It refers to the narrative voice of the story, the speaker or guiding intelligence through which the characters and actions are presented. • In drama, the term refers generally to a play’s perspective or focus.

17. Diction, Imagery, Style and Language • Diction is the style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words: good diction. • Imagery in a literary text, is an author's use of vivid and descriptive language to add depth to their work. It appeals to human senses to deepen the reader's understanding of the work.

18. Style is the arrangement of words in a manner which at once expresses the individuality of the author and the idea or intent in his mind. • Language - Figurative language is a word or phrase that departs from everyday literal language for the sake of comparison, emphasis, clarity, or freshness. • Metaphor and simile are the two most commonly used figures of speech, but things like hyperbole, synecdoche, puns, and personification are also figures of speech.

19. Tone and Atmosphere • Tone in drama signifies the way moods and attitudes are created and presented. • Tone is controlled through voice and stage gestures. (rolling one’s eyes, jumping for joy, throwing up one’s hands and etc.) • Atmosphere is the tone, feeling or overall emotion of a piece of writing. One example could be "Harry Potter" in which the atmosphere is suspenseful.

20. Symbolism and Allegory • Symbol in drama extends beyond its surface meaning. Dramatic symbols can be characters, settings, objects, actions, situations or statements can be cultural or universal . • Cultural or universal symbols are generally understood by the audience or readers. • Examples: cross, skull, flowers etc.

21. Contextual or private symbols develop their impact only within the context of a specific play or a particular scene.

22. Subject and Theme • Subject is the aspects of humanity a playwright explores. It can be about religion, love, war, hatred, death, envy and etc. • Theme is the idea that the play dramatizes. A play might explore the idea that love will always find a way or that marriage can be destructive.

23. Drama as Performance • Dramas are always meant to be acted. • The performance of it makes a play immediate, exciting and powerful. • There are many elements of performance: • -the actors ; the director; the producer; the stage; sets or scenery; lighting; costumes and makeup; the audience.

24. Actors – bring a play to life, exerting their intelligence, emotions, imaginations, voices and bodies in their roles. • All aspects of performances are controlled by the producer and director. • The producer is responsible for financing and arranging the production. • The director cooperates with the actors and guides them in speaking, responding, standing, and moving in ways that are consistent with his or her vision of the play.

25. The Stage • Read pages 1131 to 1134 for information on Stage, sets or scenery, lighting, costumes and makeup, and the audience. • Reference: Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. by Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs New Jersey :Prentice Hall Inc., 1998

26. Types of drama • Tragedy and Comedy in Ancient Rome • The theatre of Ancient Greece is a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece between 550 BC and 220 BC. • The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and military power during this period, was its centre, where it was institutionalised as part of a festival called the Dionysia, which honoured the god Dionysus.

27. Tragedy (late 6th century BC), comedy (486 BC), and the satyr play were the three dramatic genres to emerge there. Athens exported the festival to its numerous colonies and allies in order to promote a common cultural identity. • The only significant playwright at this time was the tragedian Seneca (4 BC-65 BC) who wrote “closet dramas” – plays that were meant to be read and not performed.

28. Medieval Religious Drama: A New Tradition • Beginning of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, special dramas were performed during Easter and Christmas masses. • These religiously inspired plays were called Corpus Christi plays or mystery plays. The depicted biblical stories like Adam and Eve etc. • Another type of drama that developed later is the morality play which consisted almost literally of dramatized instructions for living devout and holy life.

29. The Fusion of Ancient and Medieval Traditions in the Renaissance • Drama became liberated from its religious foundations in the 16th century and began rendering the twists and turns of more secular human conflicts. • During this time the culture and drama of ancient Greece and Rome were rediscovered. • A combination of surviving ancient tragedies and comedies created an entirely new drama that reached its highest point. Ex. Shakespeare’s plays.

30. What is tragedy? • A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. • The protagonist, usually a man of importance and outstanding personal qualities, falls to disaster through the combination of a personal failing and circumstances with which he cannot deal.

31. What is comedy? • A dramatic work that is light and often humorous or satirical in tone and that usually contains a happy resolution of the thematic conflict.

32. Oedipus by Sophocles Greek play

33. Oedipus : Three parts i. Antigone ii. Oedipus the King/Oedipus Rex iii. Oedipus at Collanus

34. Antigone • Please read about Antigone in the internet. • In this meeting, we will only discuss Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Collanus. • You will have to read the whole play in order to have a better understanding of Sophocles’ Oedipus. • You may refer to SparkNotes on the internet.

35. Introduction • Greek theater was very different from what we call theater today. It was, first of all, part of a religious festival. To attend a performance of one of these plays was an act of worship, not entertainment or intellectual pastime. • But it is difficult for us to even begin to understand this aspect of the Greek theater, because the religion in question was very different from modern religions.

36. The god celebrated by the performances of these plays was Dionysus, a deity who lived in the wild and was known for his subversive revelry. • The worship of Dionysus was associated with an ecstasy that bordered on madness. Dionysus, whose cult was that of drunkenness and sexuality, little resembles modern images of God.

37. A second way in which Greek theater was different from modern theater is in its cultural centrality: every citizen attended these plays. Greek plays were put on at annual festivals (at the beginning of spring, the season of Dionysus), often for as many as 15,000 spectators at once. They dazzled viewers with their special effects, singing, and dancing, as well as with their beautiful language. At the end of each year’s festivals, judges would vote to decide which playwright’s play was the best.

38. In these competitions, Sophocles was king. It is thought that he won the first prize at the Athenian festival eighteen times. • Far from being a tortured artist working at the fringes of society, Sophocles was among the most popular and well-respected men of his day.

39. Like most good Athenians, Sophocles was involved with the political and military affairs of Athenian democracy. He did stints as a city treasurer and as a naval officer, and throughout his life he was a close friend of the foremost statesman of the day, Pericles. • At the same time, Sophocles wrote prolifically. He is believed to have authored 123 plays, only seven of which have survived.

40. Sophocles lived a long life, but not long enough to witness the downfall of his Athens. Toward the end of his life, Athens became entangled in a war with other city-states jealous of its prosperity and power, a war that would end the glorious century during which Sophocles lived. • This political fall also marked an artistic fall, for the unique art of Greek theater began to fade and eventually died.

41. Since then, we have had nothing like it. Nonetheless, we still try to read it, and we often misunderstand it by thinking of it in terms of the categories and assumptions of our own arts. • Greek theater still needs to be read, but we must not forget that, because it is so alien to us, reading these plays calls not only for analysis, but also for imagination.

42. Oedipus Rex • SOME twelve years before the action of the play begins, Oedipus has been made King of Thebes in gratitude for his freeing the people from the pestilence brought on them by the presence of the riddling Sphinx. Since Laius, the former king, had shortly before been killed, Oedipus has been further honored by the hand of Queen Jocasta.

43. Now another deadly pestilence is raging and the people have come to ask Oedipus to rescue them as before. The King has anticipated their need, however. • Creon, Jocasta's brother, returns at the very moment from Apollo's oracle with the announcement that all will be well if Laius' murderer be found and cast from the city.

44. This information makes Oedipus uneasy. He recalls having killed a man answering Laius' description at this very spot when he was fleeing from his home in Corinth to avoid fulfillment of a similar prophecy. • An aged messenger arrives from Corinth, at this point, to announce the death of King Polybus, supposed father of Oedipus, and the election of Oedipus as king in his stead. On account of the old prophecy Oedipus refuses to return to Corinth until his mother, too, is dead.

45. To calm his fears the messenger assures him that he is not the blood son of Polybus and Merope, but a foundling from the house of Laius deserted in the mountains. This statement is confirmed by the old shepherd whom Jocasta had charged with the task of exposing her babe.

46. Thus the ancient prophecy has been fulfilled in each dreadful detail. Jocasta in her horror hangs herself and Oedipus stabs out his eyes. • Then he imposes on himself the penalty of exile which he had promised for the murderer of Laius.

47. The story was not invented by Sophocles. Quite the opposite: the play’s most powerful effects often depend on the fact that the audience already knows the story. • Since the first performance of Oedipus Rex, the story has fascinated critics just as it fascinated Sophocles.

48. Aristotle used this play and its plot as the supreme example of tragedy. Sigmund Freud famously based his theory of the “Oedipal Complex” on this story, claiming that every boy has a latent desire to kill his father and sleep with his mother. • The story of Oedipus has given birth to innumerable fascinating variations, but we should not forget that this play is one of the variations, not the original story itself.

49. Oedipus at Colonus • Beginning with the arrival of Oedipus in Colonus after years of wandering, Oedipus at Colonus ends with Antigone setting off toward her own fate in Thebes. In and of itself, Oedipus at Colonus is not a tragedy; it hardly even has a plot in the normal sense of the word.

50. Thought to have been written toward the end of Sophocles’ life and the conclusion of the Golden Age of Athens, Oedipus at Colonus, the last of the Oedipus plays, is a quiet and religious play, one that does not attempt the dramatic fireworks of the others.