Introductory Handouts to literature

Prepared by: Dr. Arwa Hussein Aldoory

What is drama?

Aristotle describes drama as a mimetic art, which takes its subject from life. Drama is a unique and distinctive genre of literature. It is a story presented on a stage through dialogue/rnonologue and live action. Usually, dramas are stories that are acted. Through the combination of performance, music or dance, props, etc; the audience is able to feel like a part of the action. The main function of comedv is to amuse and entertain the audience, while it also portrays social institutions and persons as corrupted, and ridicules them through satirizing, parodying, and poking fun at their vices.

Types of drama: There are four main types of drama: tragedy, comedy, tragicornedy and melodrama. All these types have the common characteristics of drama genre; they are: plot, dialogue, characters, conflict and music.

Tragedy: is a serious play which deals with the problems of a central character, leading to an unhappy or disastrous ending brought on by fate and a tragic flaw in this character, or, in modem drama, usually by moral weakness, psychological or social pressures.

Aristotle gives priority to the genre of tragedy and talks about certain fixed parts of it: 'lhe Hamartia: Greek word means'emor'. It refer.s to the tragic flaw of the hero which leads to his eventual downfall.

Perineteia: The sudden leversal of the hero's foftune, in the case of a tragedy his downfall.

Catharsis: It describes the 'purification' or 'purgation' of our souls at the end of a tragic performance through the pity we feel for the lost hero and the terror the horrifling events raised in us.

A tragic hero is the protagonist of a tragedy in dramas. is a courageous and noble character; however he eventually faces his own downfall because of his tragic flaw. Comedy: Comedy is a literary genre and a type of dramatic work that is amusing and satirical in its tone, mostly having a cheerful ending. The purpose of comedy is to amuse the audience.

Types of Comedy

There are five types of comedy in literature:

Romantic Comedy

Romantic comedy involves a theme of love leading to a happy conclusion. We find romantic comedy in Shakespearean plays and some Elizabethan drama. Despite the conflict which occurs in the beginning, love overcomes difficulties and ends in a happy union.

Comedy of Humors

Ben Johnson is the first dramatist who conceived and popularized this dramatic genre during the late sixteenth century. The term humor derives ..liquid.', from the Latin word humor, which means It comes from a theory that the human body has four liquids, so that when human beings have a balance of these humors in their bodies, they remain healthy.

Comedy of Manners: This form of dramatic genre deals with relations of ladies and gentlemen living in a sophisticated society. This form relies upon high comedy, derived from wit of dialogues, violations of social traditions, and good manners, by nonsense characters like jealous husbands, wives, and foppish dandies. We find its use in Restoration dramatists.

Sentimental Comedy: Sentimental drama contains both comedy and sentimental tragedy. This form, which incorporates scenes with extreme emotions evoking pity, became popular among the middle class audiences in the eighteenth century.

Tragicomedy: This dramatic genre contains both tragic and comedic elements. Often, tragicomedy is a serious play that ends happily. Point of View Definition Point of view, or POV, refers to two things in writing: 1. A point of view in a discussion, an argument, or nonfiction writing is an opinion, the way you think about a subject. 2. In a story, the point of view is the narrator's position in the description of events.

The Four Types of Point of View in Fiction: ,,I,, First person point of view. First person is when am telling the story. The character is ln the story, relating his or her experiences directly. Example of this type is F. Scott Fitzgerald,s The Great Gatsby. Here's the opening line:'In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.' My, my, me, I've, my... ,,you.,, Second person point of view. The story is told to This pOV is not common in fiction. children books often use 2nd person point of view as ifthey address the reader. Third person point of view, limited. The story is about ,.he,, or .,she.,' This is the most common point of view in commercial fiction. The narrator is outside of the story and relating the experiences of a character. ,.he,' Third person point of view, omniscient. The story is still about or "she," but the narator has full access to the thoughts and experiences of all characters in the story. The third-person omniscient point of view is generally the most objective viewpoint because an all-knowing narrator is telling the story. This narator has full knowledge of all the characters and situations and this makes it very easy to collect a lot of information.

Jane Austin's novel Pride and Prejudice is a good example of this kind of point of view. The novel is about five sisters: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia Bennet in victorian England. Their lives are turned upside down when a wealthy young man Mr. Bingley and his best friend Mr. Darcy arrive in their neighborhood. Theme: is an important element in literature. It is an implied by all the elements of the literary work,, working together. Identifying theme can sometimes be tough and tricky but it helps to understand the work better. Themes are often expressed in noun or noun phrases such as "youth", "loss of innocence". . .etc

Characters: a character is a personage in a literary work who acts, appears or is referred to as playing a parl. Though personage usually means a human being, it does not necessarily refer only to human characters since some works of fiction may have specific kinds of nonhuman characters. Characters have many types: They are either major of minor, flat or dynamic, stock or archetypes.

Flat character: it is a simple, one-dimensional character that behave and speak in repetitive or predictable way. It does not along the course of the plot.

Dynamic or Round character: is a character of psychological complexity that it can surprise convincingly. It can change along the course Of the plot.