Varieties of Dramatic Structure: A Study of Theory and PracticeThe purpose of this book is to take a fresh look at play structure from the Greeks to the present. The author approaches this task by comparing theories with plays instead of merely studying plays in the light of influential theories. In so doing, the reader discovers a variety of dramatic structures, unique forms which resist conceptual pigeonholing. The text proposes that theory rarely squares with practice, that play structures are much more various than theorists have led us to believe. Plays considered include those of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Shakespeare, Dryden, Racine, Isben, Chekhov, Brecht, and Ionesco. Theorists discussed include Aristotle, Hegel, the Cambridge Anthropologists, Gustav Freytag, A.C. Bradley, and Francis Fergusson. The text is broken into: Structure of Greek Tragedy; Structure in Shakespearean Tragedy; Varieties of Structure in Modern Drama. |
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Aeschylus Aeschylus's Agamemnon Ajax Alving analysis Antigone Antony and Cleopatra appears argues Aristotelian Aristotle Aristotle's audience avenge Beckerman begins Bradley Brecht catastrophe Chekhov Chekhov's plays Chekhovian chorus classical climax Creon critics death diptych Doll's House drama dramatic structure dramatist dramaturgy Dryden Electra Elizabethan epic theater episode Eumenides Euripides Euripides's falling action Fergusson Freytag Freytagian Ghosts Greek plays Greek tragedy Hamlet Helmer hero's Hippolytus Iago Ibsen Ibsenian structure Ionesco King Lear Kitto logical lyrical Macbeth Mack Magarshack Medea ment Mother Courage Moulton neo-classical Nina Nora occurs Oedipus Oresteia Orestes Othello pattern Phaedra Philoctetes play structure playwright plot Poetics prologue Prometheus protagonist pyramid remains reversal ritual says scene Scribean Sea Gull Shakespeare's plays Shakespearean Tragedy single single-action Sophocles Sophocles's play stage struc technique Thebes thematic theme theory tion title character tragic hero tragic structure Treplev trilogy Trojan Women ture turning point unity well-made play York