More Related Content
Similar to Chapter four theatrical genres power point
Similar to Chapter four theatrical genres power point (7)
More from ProfessorGraham
More from ProfessorGraham (7)
Chapter four theatrical genres power point
- 2. Genre
A French word meaning “category” or “type”
Oldest and best-know genres are:
▪ Tragedy
▪ Comedy
2© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 3. Traditional Tragedy
Tragic Heroes and Heroines
▪ A person of stature—king, queen, general
▪ Stand as symbols of an entire culture or society
▪ Trapped in a fateful web of tragic circumstances
Tragic Fate
Acceptance of Responsibility
Tragic Verse
The Effects of Tragedy
3© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 4. Modern Tragedy
No queens or kings as central figures
Written in prose rather than poetry
Probe the same depths and ask the same
questions
4© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 5. Characteristics of Comedy
Suspension of Natural Laws
Contrast Between Individuals and the Social
Order
The Comic Premise
5© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 6. Forms of Comedy
Farce
▪ Thrives on exaggeration
▪ Has no intellectual pretensions
▪ Aims are entertainment and laughter
▪ Has excessive plot complications
▪ Humor results from ridiculous situations as well as
pratfalls and horseplay
6© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 7. Forms of Comedy continued
Burlesque
▪ Relies on knockabout physical humor, gross
exaggeration, and occasional vulgarity
▪ Historically, it was a ludicrous imitation of other
forms of drama
7© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 8. 8© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 9. Forms of Comedy continued
Satire
▪ Uses wit, especially sophisticated language; irony;
and exaggeration to expose or attack evil and
foolishness
Domestic Comedy
▪ Usually deals with family situations
▪ Found in TV situation comedies
9© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 10. Forms of Comedy continued
Comedy of Manners
▪ Concerned with pointing up the foibles and
peculiarities of the upper class
▪ Uses verbal wit
Comedy of Ideas
▪ Uses comic techniques to debate intellectual
propositions such as the nature of war, cowardice,
and romance
10© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 11. Heroic Drama
Serious drama that has heroic or noble
characters and certain other traits of classic
tragedy
Has a happy ending
Assumes a basically optimistic worldview
© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 11
- 12. Melodrama
Means “song drama” or “music drama”
Originally comes from the Greek
Made popular by the French
“Music” refers to the background music that
accompanied these plays
12© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 13. Melodrama continued
Relies on surface effects that create
suspense, fear, nostalgia, etc.
Heroes and heroines are clearly delineated
from villains
Has easily recognizable stock characters
Virtue is always victorious
Has a suspenseful plot
13© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 14. Domestic Drama
Deals with people from everyday life instead
of kings, queens, and nobility
Common themes are:
▪ Problems of society
▪ Struggles within a family
▪ Dashed hopes
▪ Renewed determination
14© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 15. Tragicomedy
▪ Point of view is mixed
▪ Prevailing attitude is a synthesis, or fusion, of the
serious and the comic
Shakespearean Tragicomedy
Modern Tragicomedy
15© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.