Tanmayee Yenumula: Class Notes (10.25-10.29)

Notes on Drama

• Drama is both an auditory and a visual medium; movement, dialogue, and monologue are the tools with which drama creates a character, plot, theme, etc. (drama seldom relies upon narrative to perform functions)
• Drama is generally performed in such a manner as to create an illusion of reality..."verisimilitude"...the feeling that what you see on stage is actually happening. This suspension of disbelief is required because of the physical limitations of staging a production...limitations that are much more constricting than those faced by novelists, filmmakers, etc.
• There a several ways of looking at a dramatic structure. We can look for the same kinds of plotting we see in novels. We can also think about the structures of individual acts in drama in the same way we think about structures of individual chapters in a novel.
• Some types of drama:

1. Tragedy- Involves the ruin of the leading characters
2. Comedy- Leading characters overcome the difficulties which temporarily beset them
3. Melodrama- The blend of the serious action of tragedy with the happy ending of comedy
4. Tragi-Comedy- Blend of serious action with a happy ending but with more carefully drawn characters and more thoughtful treatment of serious subject mater such as love, friendship, courage, death, etc.
5. Problem Play- Drama of social criticism that discusses social, economic, or political problems
6. Farce- Comedy involving ridiculous or hilarious complications without regard for human values
7. Comedy of Manners- Comedy which wittily portrays fashionable life
8. Domestic/Bourgeois Drama- Serious play dealing with "ordinary" people from everyday life

^ This is basically putting the notes handout in simpler terms ^

Plagiarism Review (One Last Time)

Do: 

1. Indicate clearly when you use anything from another writer's work, even if it's only a phrase or single key word, by using quotation marks (".....")
2. When summarizing or paraphrasing, distinguish clearly where the ideas of others end and your own comments begin
3. When using a writer's idea or style, credit the author by name within the body of your essay and give a full reference in a Works Cited page

Don't:

1. Quote or paraphrase directly all or part of someone else's written or spoken words without documentation within the body of work
2. Present an idea, style, theory, or formula originated by another person as your own
3. Use information that is not common knowledge, including statistics and demographics, without documentation form the source that compiled it
4. Copy or paste from the Internet or another document material (including images) that is not your own without documentation from the source
5. Re-use another author's structure or order of ideas without documentation form the source

^ These notes were taken directly form the Plagiarism review for Juniors and Seniors ^