Generic classification of works of art. literature. Dramaturgy is a kind of literature. specific features Speech in drama

Dramatic works (another gr. action), like epic ones, recreate the series of events, the actions of people and their relationships. Like the author of an epic work, the playwright is subject to the "law of developing action." But there is no detailed narrative-descriptive image in the drama.

Actually, the author's speech here is auxiliary and episodic. Such are the lists of actors, sometimes accompanied by brief characteristics, designation of time and place of action; descriptions of the stage situation at the beginning of acts and episodes, as well as comments on individual replicas of the characters and indications of their movements, gestures, facial expressions, intonations (remarks).

All this constitutes a side text of a dramatic work. Its main text is a chain of statements of characters, their replicas and monologues.

Hence some limited artistic possibilities of the drama. The writer-playwright uses only a part of the visual means that are available to the creator of a novel or epic, short story or short story. And the characters of the characters are revealed in the drama with less freedom and fullness than in the epic. “I perceive the drama,” noted T. Mann, “as the art of the silhouette, and I feel only the told person as a voluminous, integral, real and plastic image.”

At the same time, playwrights, unlike the authors of epic works, are forced to limit themselves to the amount of verbal text that meets the requirements of theatrical art. The time of the action depicted in the drama must fit into the strict framework of the stage time.

And the performance in the forms familiar to the new European theater lasts, as you know, no more than three or four hours. And this requires an appropriate size of the dramatic text.

The time of the events reproduced by the playwright during the stage episode is not compressed or stretched; the characters of the drama exchange remarks without any noticeable time intervals, and their statements, as noted by K.S. Stanislavsky, make up a solid, continuous line.

If with the help of narration the action is imprinted as something past, then the chain of dialogues and monologues in the drama creates the illusion of the present time. Life here speaks as if from its own face: between what is depicted and the reader there is no intermediary-narrator.

The action is recreated in the drama with maximum immediacy. It flows as if before the eyes of the reader. “All narrative forms,” wrote F. Schiller, “transfer the present into the past; all the dramatic make the past present.”

Drama is stage oriented. And the theater is a public, mass art. The performance directly affects many people, as if merging into one in response to what is happening before them.

The purpose of the drama, according to Pushkin, is to act on the multitude, to occupy its curiosity” and for this purpose capture the “truth of passions”: “Drama was born on the square and constituted the amusement of the people. The people, like children, require entertainment, action. The drama presents him with extraordinary, strange occurrences. People want strong feelings. Laughter, pity and horror are the three strings of our imagination, shaken by dramatic art.

The dramatic genre of literature is especially closely connected with the sphere of laughter, for the theater was consolidated and developed in close connection with mass festivities, in an atmosphere of play and fun. “The comic genre is universal for antiquity,” remarked O. M. Freidenberg.

The same is true to say about the theater and drama of other countries and eras. T. Mann was right when he called the "comedian instinct" "the fundamental principle of any dramatic skill."

It is not surprising that drama gravitates towards an outwardly spectacular presentation of what is depicted. Her imagery turns out to be hyperbolic, catchy, theatrical and bright. “The theater requires exaggerated broad lines both in voice, recitation, and in gestures,” N. Boileau wrote. And this property of stage art invariably leaves its mark on the behavior of the heroes of dramatic works.

“How he acted out in the theater,” Bubnov (At the Bottom by Gorky) comments on the frenzied tirade of the desperate Klesh, who, by an unexpected intrusion into the general conversation, gave it theatrical effect.

Significant (as a characteristic of the dramatic kind of literature) are Tolstoy's reproaches against W. Shakespeare for the abundance of hyperbole, because of which, as it were, "the possibility of an artistic impression is violated." “From the very first words,” he wrote about the tragedy “King Lear”, “one can see an exaggeration: an exaggeration of events, an exaggeration of feelings and an exaggeration of expressions.”

L. Tolstoy was wrong in assessing Shakespeare's work, but the idea of the great English playwright's commitment to theatrical hyperbole is completely justified. What has been said about "King Lear" with no less reason can be attributed to ancient comedies and tragedies, dramatic works of classicism, to the plays of F. Schiller and V. Hugo, etc.

In the 19th-20th centuries, when the desire for worldly authenticity prevailed in literature, the conventions inherent in the drama became less obvious, often they were reduced to a minimum. At the origins of this phenomenon is the so-called "petty-bourgeois drama" of the 18th century, the creators and theorists of which were D. Diderot and G.E. Lessing.

Works of the largest Russian playwrights of the XIX century. and the beginning of the 20th century - A.N. Ostrovsky, A.P. Chekhov and M. Gorky - are distinguished by the reliability of the recreated life forms. But even when the playwrights set their sights on plausibility, plot, psychological, and actually verbal hyperbole persisted.

Theatrical conventions made themselves felt even in Chekhov's dramaturgy, which was the maximum limit of "life-likeness". Let's take a look at the final scene of The Three Sisters. One young woman broke up with a loved one ten or fifteen minutes ago, probably forever. Another five minutes ago found out about the death of her fiancé. And now they, together with the eldest, third sister, sum up the moral and philosophical results of the past, thinking to the sounds of a military march about the fate of their generation, about the future of mankind.

It is hardly possible to imagine this happening in reality. But we do not notice the implausibility of the ending of The Three Sisters, because we are used to the fact that the drama significantly changes the forms of people's life.

The foregoing convinces of the justice of A. S. Pushkin’s judgment (from his already cited article) that “the very essence of dramatic art excludes plausibility”; “Reading a poem, a novel, we can often forget ourselves and believe that the incident described is not fiction, but the truth.

In an ode, in an elegy, we can think that the poet portrayed his real feelings, in real circumstances. But where is the credibility in a building divided into two parts, of which one is filled with spectators who have agreed.

The most important role in dramatic works belongs to the conventions of speech self-disclosure of the characters, whose dialogues and monologues, often saturated with aphorisms and maxims, turn out to be much more extensive and effective than those remarks that could be uttered in a similar life situation.

Replicas “aside” are conventional, which, as it were, do not exist for other characters on the stage, but are clearly audible to the audience, as well as monologues uttered by the characters alone, alone with themselves, which are a purely stage technique for bringing out inner speech (there are many such monologues as in ancient tragedies, and in the dramaturgy of modern times).

The playwright, setting up a kind of experiment, shows how a person would express himself if he expressed his moods with maximum fullness and brightness in the spoken words. And speech in a dramatic work often takes on a resemblance to artistic lyrical or oratorical speech: the characters here tend to express themselves as improvisers-poets or masters of public speaking.

Therefore, Hegel was partly right, considering the drama as a synthesis of the epic beginning (eventfulness) and the lyrical (speech expression).

Drama has, as it were, two lives in art: theatrical and literary. Constituting the dramatic basis of the performances, existing in their composition, the dramatic work is also perceived by the reading public.

But this was not always the case. The emancipation of the drama from the stage was carried out gradually - over a number of centuries and ended relatively recently: in the 18th-19th centuries. The world-famous examples of drama (from antiquity to the 17th century) at the time of their creation were practically not recognized as literary works: they existed only as part of the performing arts.

Neither W. Shakespeare nor J. B. Molière were perceived by their contemporaries as writers. A decisive role in strengthening the idea of drama as a work intended not only for stage production, but also for reading, was played by the “discovery” in the second half of the 18th century of Shakespeare as a great dramatic poet.

In the 19th century (especially in its first half) the literary merits of the drama were often placed above the scenic ones. So, Goethe believed that "Shakespeare's works are not for bodily eyes", and Griboyedov called his desire to hear the verses of "Woe from Wit" from the stage "childish".

The so-called Lesedrama (drama for reading), created with the focus primarily on perception in reading, has become widespread. Such are Goethe's Faust, Byron's dramatic works, Pushkin's small tragedies, Turgenev's dramas, about which the author remarked: "My plays, unsatisfactory on stage, may be of some interest in reading."

There are no fundamental differences between the Lesedrama and the play, which the author is oriented towards stage production. Dramas created for reading are often potentially stage dramas. And the theater (including the modern one) stubbornly seeks and sometimes finds the keys to them, evidence of which is the successful productions of Turgenev's "A Month in the Country" (first of all, this is the famous pre-revolutionary performance of the Art Theater) and numerous (although far from always successful) stage readings Pushkin's little tragedies in the 20th century.

The old truth remains in force: the most important, the main purpose of the drama is the stage. “Only when performed on stage,” A. N. Ostrovsky noted, “does the author’s dramatic fiction take on a completely finished form and produce exactly the moral action that the author set himself as a goal to achieve.”

The creation of a performance based on a dramatic work is associated with its creative completion: the actors create intonation-plastic drawings of the roles they play, the artist designs the stage space, the director develops the mise-en-scenes. In this regard, the concept of the play changes somewhat (more attention is paid to some of its aspects, less attention to others), it is often concretized and enriched: the stage production introduces new semantic shades into the drama.

At the same time, the principle of faithful reading of literature is of paramount importance for the theater. The director and actors are called upon to convey the staged work to the audience with the maximum possible completeness. The fidelity of stage reading takes place where the director and actors deeply comprehend the dramatic work in its main content, genre, and style features.

Stage productions (as well as film adaptations) are legitimate only in those cases where there is agreement (even if relative) between the director and actors and the circle of ideas of the playwright writer, when the stage figures are carefully attentive to the meaning of the staged work, to the features of its genre, the features of its style and to the text itself.

In the classical aesthetics of the 18th-19th centuries, in particular by Hegel and Belinsky, drama (primarily the genre of tragedy) was regarded as the highest form of literary creativity: as the “crown of poetry”.

A whole series of artistic epochs has, in fact, manifested itself predominantly in the dramatic art. Aeschylus and Sophocles in the heyday of ancient culture, Moliere, Racine and Corneille in the time of classicism had no equal among the authors of epic works.

Significant in this respect is the work of Goethe. For the great German writer, all literary genres were available, but he crowned his life in art with the creation of a dramatic work - the immortal Faust.

In past centuries (up to the 18th century), drama not only successfully competed with the epic, but often became the leading form of artistic reproduction of life in space and time.

This is due to a number of reasons. First, the theatrical art played a huge role, accessible (unlike handwritten and printed books) to the widest strata of society. Secondly, the properties of dramatic works (the depiction of characters with pronounced features, the reproduction of human passions, the attraction to pathos and the grotesque) in the "pre-realist" era fully corresponded to general literary and general artistic trends.

And although in the XIX-XX centuries. the socio-psychological novel, a genre of epic literature, moved to the forefront of literature; dramatic works still have a place of honor.

V.E. Khalizev Theory of Literature. 1999

Drama Dictionary.

Drama(drama / Greek / - action) - one of the three types of literature, along with lyrics and epic, written in a dialogic form and intended for stage implementation. Drama belongs to both theater and literature; being the fundamental principle of the performance, it is simultaneously perceived in reading. The drama was formed on the basis of the evolution of the theatrical performance: the prominence of actors combining pantomime with the spoken word marked its emergence as a kind of literature. Drama is intended for collective perception, therefore it tends to the most acute social problems, its basis is socio-historical contradictions, eternal, universal antinomies. The drama is dominated by drama - a property of the human spirit, awakened by situations when the cherished or vital for a person remains unfulfilled or under threat. The drama is usually built on a single external (or internal) action with its ups and downs associated with direct or internal confrontation between the characters. the time corresponds to the time of perception (artistic). In the drama, the statements of the characters, which signify their volitional actions and active self-disclosure of characters, are of decisive importance. The narration (the introduction of the author's voice into the play, the messages of the messengers, the stories of the characters about what happened earlier) is subordinate, if not completely absent. The words spoken by the characters form a solid line in the play, confirmed by actions. Speech in the drama is bidirectional: the character enters into a dialogue with other characters (dialogic speech) or appeals to the audience (monologue speech). Speech in a drama is designed to be delivered in a wide theater space, designed for a mass effect, full of theatricality, i.e. a certain kind of convention. A.S. Pushkin, for example, considered that of all kinds of compositions, “the most implausible dramatic works.” Although the figurative system of drama is invariably dominated by speech characteristics, its text is focused on spectacular expressiveness and on the possibilities of stage technology, therefore one of the most important characteristics of drama is her stage presence.

Action (dramatic)- the actions of the characters in their relationship, which constitute the most important side of the dramatic plot. Units of action are statements, movements, gestures, mimic acts of characters expressing their emotions, desires and intentions. The action can be external, based on ups and downs (for example, in W. Shakespeare or J.-B. Molière), and internal, in which changes are made in the mentality of the characters with external eventlessness (for example, in A. Chekhov). External action reveals itself, as a rule, to open conflicts, confrontations between heroes or their life positions, which arise, escalate and are resolved within the framework of the depicted events. The internal action reflects immanent, stable, insurmountable conflicts within the framework of one work. The actions of the characters are interdependent, which is the unity of the action, which (starting with Aristotle's "Poetics") is still considered the norm of dramatic plot construction.

Conflict (conflictus / lat. / - collision) - a contradiction as the principle of the relationship between the images of a work of art. Conflict has become a hallmark of drama and theatre. As Hegel wrote: “Dramatic action is not limited to the simple and calm achievement of a certain goal; on the contrary, it takes place in an atmosphere of conflicts and clashes and is subjected to the pressure of circumstances, the pressure of passions and characters that oppose and resist it. These conflicts and collisions, in turn, give rise to actions and reactions that at a certain moment necessitate reconciliation ”(Hegel G.W.F. Aesthetics. M., 1968. Vol. 1. P. 219). Dramatic conflict stems from the collision of the antagonistic forces of drama. Being the basis and driving force of the action, the conflict determines the main stages of plot development: the initial eventless situation - exposition, the event that contributes to the emergence of the conflict - the plot, the event that marks the highest aggravation of the conflict - the culmination, the event that resolves the conflict (not always mandatory) - the denouement. Most often, the conflict appears in the form of a collision (the word is synonymous with conflict), i.e. in the form of an open confrontation between the opposing forces. A conflict arises when a character, seeking his goal (love, power, ideal), confronts another character, faces a psychological, moral or fatal obstacle. The outcome of the conflict is inevitably connected with the pathos of the work: it can be comic, i.e. conciliatory or tragic, when neither side can make concessions without suffering damage (and so on, depending on the aesthetic specifics of pathos). An approximate theoretical model of all conceivable dramatic situations that determine the nature of a theatrical action could be defined as follows: - the rivalry of two characters for economic, love, moral, political and other reasons; - the conflict of two worldviews, two irreconcilable morals; - the moral struggle between the subjective and the objective, attachment and duty, passion and reason: this dilemma can arise in the soul of one hero or between two "camps" that are trying to win over the hero; - the conflict of interests of the individual and society; - the moral or metaphysical struggle of a person against any principle or desire that exceeds his capabilities (God, absurdity, ideal, overcoming himself and etc.). The conflict (collision) is most often realized in the form of a verbal duel, in a verbal struggle with arguments and counterarguments, here a monologue is also appropriate for presenting reasoning expressing opposition and clash of ideas. Along with the conflict-collision, that is, the external conflict, in the twentieth century. such a phenomenon as an internal conflict, as a global eternal, irremediably hopeless fragmentation of a person, the confrontation between the social and biological, conscious and subconscious, the insoluble contradiction of a lonely individual with a reality alienated from him, intensified. If the external conflict is somehow resolved within the framework of one work, then the internal conflict, based on the struggle of a person with himself or the struggle of universal principles, cannot be resolved within the framework of one plot and is presented as substantial; here, the dialectics of the construction of the work of art itself, the contradiction between form and content, composition and theme, between “texture” and “structure” (L. Vygotsky), the subject and meaning of an artistic statement (see: theater of the absurd) are taken into account to a greater extent.

exposition(exposito, expouere /lat./ - to show off) provides the necessary information to assess the situation and understand the action that will be presented. Knowing exposition is especially important for acting with intricate plot. For classical dramaturgy, exposition tends to be concentrated at the beginning of the play and is often localized in the story of one or more characters. When the dramatic structure relaxes, where the conflict does not unfold, but is initially assumed (for example, existential conflict, intellectual drama, etc.), followed by an analysis of the causes that gave rise to it, here all subsequent text can become an extensive exposition, thus, the concept loses its specific significance. The exposition is significant for the play in that it raises questions that are answered by the development of the conflict: Who are the protagonists? What separates them, what brings them together, what are their goals? What is the impression produced by the play? What atmosphere and what reality are reproduced? If the logic of the fictional world differs from the logic of the real world, then what are its rules (a measure of convention)? How to perceive the psychological, social and love motivations of the characters? What is the idea of the performance, how to establish a parallel with the real world? in order to have data on fictional events represented by a dramatic work. The plot is a certain event in a dramatic work that marks the beginning of the development of the action in one and only this direction, towards the emergence and deepening of a dramatic conflict.

climax(culmen / lat. / - peak) - an event that marks the highest moment of development (or deepening) of the conflict: the conflict is aggravated to the limit, both eventually and emotionally, then - only the denouement.

denouement- This is an episode of a dramatic work that finally eliminates conflicts. In the denouement, the conflict can be resolved by eliminating one of the parties to the dispute or by clarifying the error that served as the source of the conflict; can be removed as a result of a change in the initial situation, when the opposing sides disagreed in their judgments to such an extent that nothing binds them; can be represented by an "open ending" (or a return to the original situation in a circle), since it cannot be resolved within the framework of the presented plot. Antique drama and classicism drama used the deus ex machina (“God from the Machine”) denouement, when only the intervention of divine (or other external to the plot) forces can resolve a hopeless situation.

Intrigue(intricare /lat./ - to confuse) - a way of organizing a dramatic action with the help of complex twists and turns. The intrigue is closer to the plot line than to the plot, and is associated with a detailed sequence of unexpected turns in the plot, interweaving and a series of conflicts, obstacles and means used by the characters to overcome them. It describes the outward, visible aspect of dramatic development, not the deep movement of inner action.

Peripeteia(peripeteia / Greek / - unexpected change) - an unexpected turn in a situation or action, a sharp change. According to Aristotle, ups and downs occur at the moment when the fate of the hero makes a turn from happiness to misfortune or vice versa. In the modern sense, the ups and downs more often means the ups and downs of the action, adventure, or a less significant episode following a strong moment of action.

Dramatic speech(theatrical and dramatic discourse). In the volume of theatrical discourse, one can single out the speech of the mise-en-scène and the speech of the characters, thus, one can speak of stage speech (discourse) both in the sense of the performance and in the sense of the text of the play, waiting for the act of utterance on the stage. Theatrical text (dramatic text, text of a play) is not oral speech, but conditionally written, representing oral speech. Thus, speech means what distinguishes the stage application of speech activity from utterance (verbal dimension) to non-verbal (visual dimension): gestures, facial expressions, movements, costumes, body, props, scenery, etc. Theatrical text is implemented as usually in dialogic and monologue form. A conversation between two or more characters is a dramatic dialogue, although other types of communication are possible within the framework of the dialogue: between visible and invisible characters, between a person and God or a ghost, between an animated person and inanimate objects. The main criterion for dialogue is communication and the reversibility of communication. Dialogue is seen as the main and most revealing form of drama. The monologue, on the other hand, acts as a decorative element that does not correspond well to the principle of plausibility. However, in classical drama the dialogue may be more of a series of monologues with more autonomy than an exchange of lines. And, on the contrary, many monologues, despite the fusion of the text of the statement, are nothing more than dialogues of a character with a part of himself, with another imaginary character, or with the whole world called to witness. Dramatic dialogue is characterized by a fairly high rate of "feeding" replicas, only then does it become a verbal duel. According to the unwritten generic rule, in the theater dialogue (as well as any speech of characters) is an action through speech. Thanks to the dialogue, the viewer begins to feel the transformation of the whole world of the performance, the dynamics of the action. Dialogue and speech are the only elements of action in a play, since it is the act of speech, the pronunciation of phrases, that is the only effective action in drama - the word-action.

Monologue, in turn, is defined as a character's speech that is not addressed directly to the interlocutor in order to get an answer from him. Since the monologue was perceived as something anti-dramatic, in realistic and naturalistic drama a monologue was allowed only in exceptional situations (in a dream, in a state of intoxication, as an outpouring of feelings), and in Shakespearean drama or in romantic drama, a monologue was very popular. A monologue is called an internal dialogue, formulated in a special “inner language”, in which the speaking I and the listening I participate. According to the dramatic function, one can distinguish between “technical” or narrative monologues (a monologue-story, a presentation by one of the characters of events that have already taken place), lyrical (a monologue uttered by the hero at the moment of a strong experience that requires the disclosure of the sphere of feelings), a monologue-thinking or a monologue-decision-making (the hero in a situation of moral choice sets out to himself the arguments "for" and "against"). According to their literary form, monologues can be: - a monologue that conveys the state of the hero; - a monologue associated with the dialectic of reasoning, when logical argumentation is presented as a sequence of semantic and rhythmic oppositions; - an internal monologue or "stream of consciousness", when the character says everything that comes to his mind, not caring about the logic, relevance and completeness of the statement; - a monologue expressing a direct author's word, when the author directly addresses the public with the help of some plot device, sometimes in a musical and poetic form in order to please the viewer (to establish his position in his mind) or provoke him; - a monologue-dialogue in solitude, a dialogue with a deity or another off-stage character, a paradoxical dialogue when one speaks and the other does not answer. In the drama of the 20th century, especially in Brechtian and post-Brechtian drama, the main point is the totality of speeches delivered during the play, and not individual characters with their individual consciousness, thus, the monologue takes a leading position in modern dramaturgy. So the theatrical and dramatic discourse is transformed into a monologue of the main speaker (that is, an instance that replaces the author) or into a direct dialogue with the viewer.

Replica- text that a character pronounces during a dialogue in response to a question or some other action. A replica makes sense only in the linkage of the previous and subsequent replicas: replica / counter-replica, word / counter-word, action / reaction. The exchange of remarks creates the intonation, the style of the game, the rhythm of the mise-en-scene. Brecht noted that the staging of replicas is carried out according to the principle of tennis: “Intonation is grasped on the fly and lasts; hence comes the vibration and intonation fluctuations that pervade entire scenes” (Brecht B. Voir Theatrarbeit. Frankfurt, 1961. 385). The response always feeds the dialectic of answers and questions that move the action forward.

Aparte(aparte / French /) - the speech of the character, which is addressed not to the interlocutor, but to himself (and the public). It differs from a monologue in its brevity and inclusion in the dialogue. Aparte is a character's escaping remark, "accidentally" overheard by the public, but nevertheless aimed at being perceived in the context of the spoken dialogue. As a rule, aparte is made out with a side note - “to the side” or a certain location of the character on the proscenium. In apart, the character never lies, because one does not lie to oneself, and reveals the true intentions of the characters. Moments of inner truth turn out to be a kind of "downtime" in the development of the action, during which the viewer develops his own judgment. Accordingly, aparthe can carry an "epic" function. (It can be assumed that the zongs in Brecht's "epic theater" are nothing but an aparte). Aparte complements the monologue, as it involves self-reflection, “winking” at the public, awareness, decision making, addressing the public, etc.

Soliloquy(solus / lat. / - one and loqui / lat. / - speak) - a speech addressed to oneself, a synonym for a monologue, but more than a monologue, because it creates a position in which the character reflects on his psychological and moral situation, thanks to the theatrical conventions, actualizing the internal monologue for the viewer. The soliloquy reveals to the viewer the soul or unconscious of the character or his reflection: hence his epic significance, lyrical pathos and ability to turn into a chosen fragment, to give it an autonomous meaning, like, for example, Hamlet's soliloquy about existence. Soliloquy is justified in the drama by the fact that it can be uttered at the moment of moral choice, at the moment of searching for oneself, i.e. when the dilemma must be formulated aloud. Soliloquy leads to destruction and theatrical illusion and is a theatrical convention for the sake of establishing direct contact with the public.

Author in drama(Author of a play, playwright) - for a long time the profession of the author of a play was not independent. Until the 16th century - only a supplier of texts, a man of the theater. Only at the end of the Reformation era, in the era of Classicism, does the playwright become a person in the social sense, a person who plays an important role in the work on the performance. In the course of the evolution of the theater, his role may seem disproportionately large compared with the role of the director and director (whose functions were determined no earlier than the end of the 19th century) and especially compared with the actor, who, according to Hegel, became only “an instrument played by the author.” , a sponge that absorbs colors and transmits them without any change ”(Hegel G.V.F. Aesthetics. M., 1968. T. 1. P. 288). Modern theater theory tends to replace the author of the play with the global theme of theatrical discourse, which is the cumulative process of utterance, a kind of equivalent of a narrator (narrator) found in the text of the novel. The subject of the author can be caught in stage directions, stage directions, chorus or reasoner text. The author of the play is engaged in the structuring of the plot, the montage of actions, an elusive set of perspectives and semantic contexts of the dialogizing performers. Finally, when it comes to a classical text, homogeneous in form, authorship is certainly revealed, despite the many roles. On the other hand, the author of a play is only the first (basic, in the sense that the word is the most accurate and stable system) link in the production chain , which forms the text through the mise-en-scenes, the author's game, a specific stage performance and its perception by the public.

Didascalia(didascalia / Greek / - instruction, training) - in the ancient Greek theater, the protocols for productions and dramatic competitions. They were inscriptions on marble slabs, containing the names of playwrights and protagonists, the titles of staged plays and the results of competitions. Some excerpts from the didascalia made by Aristotle and scholars of the Hellenistic era have survived in manuscripts of tragedies and comedies, in introductions to individual plays. In the modern sense, the instructions given by the author to his performers regarding the interpretation of the text of the play are similar to the concept of stage directions (remarks).

remark(remarque / French / - note, mark), stage instructions - the author's note for the reader, director and actor in the text of the play, containing a brief description of the setting of the action, appearance, pronunciation and behavior of the characters. Thus, it is any text not spoken by the actors and intended to facilitate or indicate the manner of the performance. The existence of stage directions and their meaning has changed significantly throughout the history of the theatre, ranging from their absence in the ancient theater, their extreme rarity in classical drama, to epic abundance in melodrama and naturalistic drama, and their filling of the whole play in the theater of the absurd. The text of the play does not need stage directions when it contains all the necessary information about the characters and the environment surrounding them. But at the end of the nineteenth century. and in the twentieth century. the author strives to determine as accurately and subtly as possible the spatio-temporal coordinates, the inner world of the characters and the atmosphere of the stage - here the voice of the narrator is required, thus, the theater approaches the novel form. Such stage directions can turn into a long internal monologue describing things on the stage, or into a pantomime setting up dialogue, and so on. Stage directions, or remarks, are presented as part of the whole: the text of the play + directions = metatext, which determines both the actual dialogues and the entire production as a whole. If "loyalty" to the author is observed, the instructions are observed in the production, the interpretation of the play is subject to them. Thus, the stage instructions are likened to the director's instructions, stage directions for the performance.

subtext(sub-text /eng./) - in the broadest sense of the word, denotes an underlying implicit meaning that does not coincide with the direct meaning; subtext depends on the purpose and expression of the statement, on the characteristics of the speech situation. Subtext arises as a means of silence, "backward thought" and even irony. In this case, "the direct lexical meanings of words cease to formulate and determine the internal content of speech" (Vinogradov V. Questions of linguistics. 1955. No. 1. P. 79). A narrower concept of "subtext" arises in relation to the "new drama" at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. and all subsequent drama of the twentieth century. The subtext, or "dialogue of the second category" (M. Maeterlinck), or "undercurrent" (Vl. Nemirovich-Danchenko) closely adjoins the internal action and can express a complex of thoughts and feelings contained in the text spoken by the characters, but revealing not so much in words, how many in pauses, in internal, unpronounceable monologues. Thus, subtext is that which is not explicitly stated in the text of the play, but stems from how the text is interpreted by the actor. The subtext becomes a kind of commentary, which is given by the acting of the actor and the whole production, and informs the viewer of the necessary inner knowledge for the correct and most complete perception of the performance. This concept was theoretically expressed by K. Stanislavsky, for whom the subtext is a psychological tool that informs about the internal state of the character, establishing the distance between what is said in the text and what is shown on the stage, therefore, the psychological and psychoanalytic imprint can also be called subtext, which the actor leaves on the appearance of his character during the game.

Overtext(by analogy with the subtext) occurs in dramatic works with an extremely conditional plot, with functional characters who act not on the basis of their social determinism or subtle psychological experiences, but as if by the will of the author, illustrating one or another author's thought. In such dramatic works, the plot is simple, even primitive and recedes into the background; what is important for the author is his appeal to material already known (even well-known) in world culture, which, using the techniques of stylization, reminiscence, allusion, citation, etc. he uses to comprehend some contemporary moral, psychological or political situation. The supertext thus creates the plot of the play-parable (both open and encrypted), the structure of a dramatic parabola.

Intertext– based on the theory of Roland Brat about intertextuality, the idea was formed that the text is understandable only due to the functioning of the texts preceding it, which, while transforming, affect it. Dramatic and theatrical (spectacular) text can be located inside dramatic compositions and stage techniques. The director may include in the fabric of the play being played extraneous texts related to the play thematically, in a parody, or capable of explaining it from a different angle. Intertext transforms the text of the original, “explodes” the linear plot and theatrical illusion, comparing two, often opposite, rhythms, such as writing, making the original text sharper. Intertextuality also exists when, in the same scenery, with the participation of the same actors, the director stages two texts that inevitably echo each other.

Dramatic space and time- artistic time and space (chronotope) are the most important characteristics of the artistic image, providing a holistic perception of artistic reality and organizing the composition of the work. The art of the word belongs to the group of dynamic, temporal arts, therefore the artistic image, unfolding in time (the sequence of the text), with its content reproduces the spatio-temporal picture of the world, moreover, in its symbolic-ideological, value aspect. The problem of the chronotope has been developed in the domestic science of literature, primarily in relation to the epic. In turn, due to the syncretic nature of the drama, it makes sense to talk about the spatio-temporal characteristics of not only dramatic, but also theatrical text.

Time - one of the important elements of a dramatic text or its stage image. Based on the dual nature of time, it is necessary to determine the time to which the viewer is referred (or stage time), and the time reconstructed by the author with the help of a sign system (or off-stage time). Stage time is the time lived by the spectator, the witness of the theatrical event (i.e. event time associated with the course of the performance). Stage time is embodied by the temporal and spatial signs of a given performance: the modification of objects, scenes of action, the play of lighting, the exits and departures of actors from the stage, movements, etc. Each system of such signs has a rhythm and its own structure. Offstage (or dramatic) time is the time of events that the performance tells about, i.e. a peculiar plot of the performance, connected not with the directly stated events, but with the illusion that something is happening, has happened or will happen in the world of the possible or in the world of fantasy. Dramatic time defines the opposite of action and intrigue, plot and plot, story and story, namely the relationship between the temporal sequence of elements in a strictly chronological order of events and the illusion of their temporal order in a theatrical performance. The effect of theatrical time for the viewer is that he forgets where he is: he lives in the present time, but at the same time loses this connection and penetrates into another world, into an imaginary world, which, in turn, turns out to be an experienced present - in this is a feature of theatrical conventionality. I recall the saying of the French philosopher Etienne Souriau: “The whole theater is existential, its highest triumph, its heroic act is that it makes imaginary characters exist” (Quoted from: Bentley Eric. Life of Drama. M., 1978. P. 58) Dramatic time can be very long (for example, in Shakespeare's historical chronicles), but it is played during one performance and lasts two to three hours. The aesthetics of classicism demanded that the action of the dramatic time coincide with the time of the stage, this requirement led to naturalistic aesthetics, when the stage reality reproduces the dramatic in "life size". The same is typical for modern performance, when dramatic time is not imitated, stage time remains itself and is not hidden behind artistic fiction and the external manifestation of time on stage. Very rarely, it becomes possible to expand the scope of stage time, denoting a very short period of action (for example, in M. Maeterlinck, J. Priestley, in the theater of the absurd). When staging a classical text, the problem of historical time (the historical and functional aspect of the work) is usually added to the ratio of stage and off-stage time. In this case, one has to keep in mind the time of the stage statement (the historical moment when the work was staged, to which the director appeals); historical time and its logic represented by the plot; the time of the creation of the play and the level of the theater, the acting style of the actors of that historical time.

Space (theatrical) (space in the theater / English /) - a concept applied to various aspects of the text of the production. You can try to identify the types of theatrical space: a) dramatic space, i.e. the one referred to in the text is an abstract space created by the reader and the viewer with the help of imagination; b) stage space - the real space of the stage where the action takes place; for the public "by a certain architecture, a certain vision of the world, created mainly by the actors themselves and the directors of the performance; d) playing (gestural) space is the space created by the actor, his presence and movements, his place in relation to other actors, his location on the stage (associated with the concept of mise-en-scene); e) textual space is the space in its graphic, phonic and rhetorical materiality, the space of the score, where replicas and didascalia are recorded, occurs when the text is not intended for dramatic space, but is presented in the form of material for visual and auditory perception; e) internal space is a stage space where an attempt is made to present fantasies, dreams, visions of a playwright or one of the characters. her distance. According to Hegel, this is a place of objectification and confrontation between the stage and the hall, i.e., the space is obvious, visible. But the theater is also a place where the viewer's self-projection process (catharsis and self-identification) takes place. And then, through interpenetration, the theater becomes the "inner space" of the viewer himself, the opportunity to develop himself and all his capabilities. Thus, the stage space is formed and colored by the viewer's self. Dramatic space conveys the image of the dramatic structure of the play, which includes characters, their actions and relationships between characters. The dramatic space is built by us on the basis of the author's stage directions, which are a kind of premise-en-scène with the help of spatio-temporal indications contained in the dialogue. Thus, each viewer creates his own subjective image of the dramatic space, and there is nothing surprising in the fact that the director-producer chooses only one of the possible specific stage incarnations. Dramatic space is a space of fiction, which, in turn, has its influence on scenography. This raises the eternal question of what comes first: scenography or dramaturgy in staging a performance. Although, of course, the dramatic concept should be put in the first place, i.e. ideological conflict between characters, engines of action.

Plot and plot in drama . The plot (fabula /lat./ - story, fable) is the event basis of the work, abstracted from specific artistic details and accessible to non-artistic development, retelling (often borrowed from mythology, folklore, previous literature, history, newspaper chronicles, etc.). The term plot correlates (corresponds) with the term plot (sujet / French / - subject). The "formal school" may have conceptualized this usage for the first time. According to the interpretation of the representatives of OPOYAZ, if the plot determines the development of the events themselves in the lives of the characters, then the plot is the order and way of reporting them by the author. Now the following distinction is accepted in science: the plot serves as material for the plot; i.e., the plot as a set of events and motives in their logical cause-and-effect relationship; a plot as a set of the same events and motives in the sequence and connection in which they are narrated in the work in an artistic (compositional) sequence and in the fullness of imagery. Thus, the plot of a work of art is one of the most important means of summarizing the writer's thought, expressed through the verbal depiction of fictional characters in their individual actions and relationships, including in spiritual movements, "gestures" of a person or thing, a spoken or "thinkable" word. Based on from the theory of the author B. Korman, along with a formal and meaningful understanding of the plot, as a set of elements of “a text united by a common subject (those who perceive and depict) or a common object (those that are perceived and depicted)”; “the work as a whole is a unity of many plots of different levels and volumes, and in principle there is not a single unit of text that would not be included in one of the plots” (Korman B. Integrity of a literary work and an experimental dictionary of literary terms // Problems of the history of criticism and poetics of realism, Kuibyshev, 1981, p. 42). Thus, it can be assumed that the overtext element, supertext, subtext, and metatext can be an equal unit of the plot. Since in classical drama the direct word of the author in the dramatic text is insignificant, the plot of the dramatic work is as close as possible to the plot line. conflicts, resolution, denouement – in dramatic (conditional) space/time. But the plot in this case does not cover the text of the play itself, since in the twentieth century. the narrative element, behind which is the image of the author correcting the plot, is increasingly intruding into the dialogic and monologue speech of the characters. And, of course, it cannot cover the text of the staging of the play in the theatre. (Modern theater no longer expresses, sets out and represents the plot, but the plot (in the author's interpretation) of a dramatic work. Since the plot of the drama of the twentieth century is not just some kind of chain of events in social life that copies their real sequence, but a certain intention of the author, in which his thoughts about human society are expressed.In the process of working on a performance, the plot is in a state of constant development, not only at the level of the editorial and text of the play, but also at the level of the staging and acting process: selection of scenes, work on the role and motivation of the characters' actions, coordination of various performing arts, etc. To create a production plot from the plot of a play means to give an interpretation (of a text for the director and a performance for the viewer), it means to choose a certain concept related to the placement of accents. only as a dramatic, playful, hermeneutic choice.Thus, we can say that if the dramatic plot (as well as the epic one) is adequate to the text of the play, then the theatrical plot cannot be considered as an invariant of the text, it is in each new production in a state of construction.

character, hero, nature, image –

1. Character (persona / Latin / - mask, face: personage / French /; character / English /; Figur / German /; personaje / Spanish /) - in the ancient Greek theater persona - a mask, a role played by an actor. The actor was separated from his character, he is only his performer, not the incarnation. The subsequent evolution of the theater is associated with the allocation of the effective function of the character, with the convergence of the concept of character with the concept of character, which helps the concept of "character" to embody a certain social, psychological and moral essence of the hero. The actor and the character are not identical, although in the performance they can mutually influence each other. In different epochs of historical development, the character was represented as a kind of integral artistic image, an individual, a type, a subject of action, who allegedly participated in the events of the drama, allegedly independently of the playwright, within the framework of his socio-psychological determinism. The character was determined by his essence (tragic, comic, etc.), quality (stinginess, misatropia, courage, etc.), a combination of physical and moral characteristics - role. in the drama of the 20th century. the character acquires a number of new qualities that connect his image with the image of the author, with the actor's individuality or intertextual context (in terms of playing "theater within the theater", etc.).

2. Hero (heros / Greek / - a demigod or a deified person) - an artistic image, one of the designations of the integral existence of a person in the totality of his appearance, way of thinking, behavior and spiritual world in the art of the word. In drama, starting from ancient times, the hero is a type of character endowed with exceptional strength and power, his actions should look like exemplary ones, his fate is the result of free choice, he himself creates his position and opposes in the struggle and moral conflict, is responsible for his guilt or an error. The heroic character exists only when the play's contradictions (social, psychological, or moral) are wholly contained in the hero's consciousness, and this consciousness is a microcosm of the dramatic universe. In this case, the concept of "hero" forms a theatrical role - a hero / heroine (similar to the concept of "protagonist"). a hero is called both a tragic and a comic character. It loses its significance as a model and acquires only one meaning: the main character of a dramatic work. The hero can be negative, collective (the people in some historical dramas), elusive (the theater of the absurd), even off-stage. The modern hero can no longer influence events, he has no position on reality. From the nineteenth century and in the modern theater the hero can also exist in the guise of his ironic and grotesque counterpart - the anti-hero. Since the values that the classical hero (protagonist) cherished either fall in value or are discarded, the antihero appears as the only alternative for describing human actions. In Brecht, for example, man is dismantled, reduced to the state of an individual, self-contradictory and integrated into a story that defines his life more than he suspects. The hero cannot survive the reassessment of values and the decomposition of his own consciousness, and in order to survive, he is forced to take on the appearance of an anti-hero (an anti-hero is akin to a marginal hero).

3. Image (artistic) - a category of aesthetics that characterizes a special way of mastering and transforming reality, inherent only in art. An image is any phenomenon that is creatively recreated in a work of art. The artistic specificity of the image is determined not only by the fact that it reflects and comprehends the existing reality, but also by the fact that it creates a new, unprecedented fictional world. In an artistic image, a creative transformation of real material is achieved: colors, sounds, words, etc. a single “thing” (text, picture, performance) is created, which occupies its special place among the objects of the real world. The stage image is close to the broadest understanding of the aesthetic category as a form of reflection and reincarnation of reality by means of theatrical art. In a narrow sense, a scenic image is understood as the specific content of the reflected phenomenon of reality, recreated by a playwright, director, actors, artist, a picture of life, character, character. The concept of a stage image includes, first of all, the image of the entire performance, the artistic integrity and interaction of all its components united by the director's idea and its embodiment, and in a narrower sense, it is the image-character created by the actor. The image plays an increasingly significant role in modern theatrical practice, because it is opposed to a naked text, plot or action. Acquiring the visual nature of the performance, the theater creates its own figurative picture. The production is always a figurative embodiment, but it is more or less an imaginary and “imaginary” subject of theatrical discourse, the represented world appears in it thanks to the creation of images that approach reality. At present, the scene is close to the landscape or mental image, it has overcome the imitation of any thing or its designation. Having ceased to be a “playing machine”, the theater strives to become a “dreaming machine”, i.e. to some extent, it returns to the ancient syncretic image of the prateatre, where the subtext of meaning in the imagination and consciousness of the viewer is much greater than the depicted phenomenon.

4. Character (karahter /Greek/ - imprinted sign) - the image of a person in a literary work, through which both the socially and historically conditioned type of behavior, actions, thoughts, speech, etc., and the moral and aesthetic inherent in the author are revealed. concept of human existence. The characters of the characters in the play are a combination of physical, psychological and moral traits of a particular character. The character manifests itself most clearly in the drama of the Renaissance and Classicism, receives its full development in the nineteenth century, during the period of bourgeois individualism, and reaches its culmination in the art of modernism and psychologism. Distrustful of the individual, this negative subject of bourgeoisness, the art of the avant-garde seeks to overcome it, as well as to go beyond the limits of psychologism and find the correlation of “unbuilt and post-individual” types and consciousnesses. Character is the recreated in-depth properties of the environment or era. It is paradoxical that a literary or critical analysis of a character leads to an almost mythical creation of him, as true and real as the people who meet in everyday life. The "ideal" character maintains a balance between individual (psychological and moral) attributes and sociohistorical determinism. The stage performance connects universality with individuality, thus allowing comparison with each of us. For the secret of any theatrical character is that he is the same as us (we identify ourselves with him in the moment of catharsis), and he is different (we keep him at a respectful distance from us).

Dramatic works (gr. drama - action), like epic ones, recreate the series of events, the actions of people and their relationships. Like the author of an epic, narrative work, the playwright is subject to the “law of developing action,” but there is no narrative-descriptive image in the drama (except for the rare cases when the drama has a prologue). But there is no detailed narrative-descriptive image in the drama. Actually author's speech here auxiliary and episodic ( list of actors sometimes accompanied by their brief characteristics, designation time And places of action descriptions of the stage situation at the beginning of acts and episodes, as well as comments on individual replicas of the characters and indications of their movements, gestures, facial expressions, intonations (remarks) - side dramatic text). Basic its text is an alternation of the characters' statements, their replicas and monologues. The writer-playwright uses part of the visual means that are available to the creator of a novel or epic, short story or short story. And the characters of the characters are revealed in the drama with less freedom and fullness than in the epic.

Time The action depicted in the drama must fit into the strict time frame of the stage (2-3 hours). Drama characters exchange replicas without any noticeable time intervals; their statements, as noted by K.S. Stanislavsky, make up a solid, continuous line. The chain of dialogues and monologues in the drama creates the illusion of present time. Life here speaks as if from its own face: between what is depicted and the reader there is no intermediary-narrator. The purpose of the drama, according to A.S. Pushkin - "to act on the multitude, to occupy its curiosity." Drama gravitates toward an outwardly spectacular presentation of what is depicted. Her imagery, as a rule, turns out to be hyperbolic, catchy, theatrical and bright. In the 19th-20th centuries, when the desire for worldly authenticity prevailed in literature, the conventions inherent in the drama became less obvious, often they were reduced to a minimum. At the origins of this phenomenon is the so-called "petty-bourgeois drama" of the 18th century, the creators and theorists of which were D. Diderot and G.E. Lessing. Works of the largest Russian playwrights of the XIX century. and the beginning of the 20th century A.N. Ostrovsky, A.P. Chekhov and M. Gorky are distinguished by the reliability of the recreated life forms. But even when the playwrights set on the plausibility of what was depicted, plot, psychological and actual speech hyperbole persisted. Theatrical conventions made themselves felt even in Chekhov's dramaturgy, which was the maximum limit « lifelikeness ». In past centuries (up to the 18th century), drama not only successfully competed with the epic, but often became the leading form of artistic reproduction of life in space and time. This is due to a number of reasons. First, the theatrical art played a huge role, accessible (unlike handwritten and printed books) to the widest strata of society. Secondly, the properties of dramatic works (the depiction of characters with pronounced character traits, the reproduction of human passions, the attraction to pathos and the grotesque) in pre-realist eras fully corresponded to general literary and general artistic trends.

Speech on the stage we divide into monologue and dialog. Monologue the actor's speech is called in the absence of other characters, i.e. the speech is not addressed to anyone. However, in stage practice, a developed and coherent speech is also called a monologue, even if it is pronounced in the presence of other persons and is addressed to someone. Such monologues contain spiritual outpourings, narrations, sententious sermons, etc. Dialogue is a verbal exchange between two players. The content of the dialogue - questions and answers, disputes, etc. The notion of dialogue extends to the cross-talk of three or more persons, which is typical of new drama. In the old drama, pure dialogue was predominantly cultivated - a conversation of precisely two persons.

The performance is supplemented by scenery, props, props, i.e. dead phenomena participating in actions. Things (props), room furnishings, furniture, individual items necessary for the game (weapons, etc.) and so on can play their role here. Along with these objects, the so-called "effects" are introduced into the performance - visual effects, for example, light, auditory. Major parts of a dramatic work are acts(or actions). An act is a part performed on the stage continuously, in a continuous connection between speeches and acting. Acts are separated from each other by breaks in the performance - intermissions. It should be noted that sometimes in the course of the performance, a change of scenery (lowering the curtain) within the act is required. These parts are called "pictures" or "scenes". There is no exact, fundamental boundary between “pictures” and “act”, and the difference between them is purely technical (usually the intermission between the pictures is short and the audience does not leave their seats). Within the act, division occurs according to the exits and departures of the characters. The part of the act, when the characters on the stage do not change, is called phenomenon(sometimes "scene").

IN starting point of modern drama(XVII century - French classicism) drama was divided into tragedy and comedy. hallmarks tragedy there were historical heroes (mainly the heroes of Greece and Rome, especially the heroes of the Trojan War), “high” themes, “tragic” (that is, unfortunate - usually the death of heroes) denouement. A feature of the texture was the advantage of a monologue, which, in verse speech, created a special style of theatrical recitation. Tragedy resisted comedy, which chose modern themes, "low" (i.e., aroused laughter) episodes, a happy denouement (typically - a wedding). Dialogue predominated in comedy.

In the XVIII century. the number of genres is increasing. Along with strict theatrical genres, lower, "fair" genres are being promoted: Italian buffoonery comedy, vaudeville, parody, etc. These genres are the origins of modern farce; grotesque, operettas, miniatures. Comedy breaks apart, singling out "drama" from itself, i.e. a play with modern everyday themes, but without the specific “comic” of the situation (“petty-bourgeois tragedy” or “tearful comedy”). By the end of the century, acquaintance with Shakespearean dramaturgy had an impact on the texture of the tragedy. Romanticism in the early 19th century introduces into tragedy the techniques developed in comedy (the presence of a game, the greater complexity of the characters, the predominance of dialogue, a freer verse that required reduced recitation), turns to the study and imitation of Shakespeare and the Spanish theater, destroys the canon of tragedy, which proclaimed three theatrical unities (the unity of place, i.e. the immutability of the scenery, the unity of time (the 24-hour rule) and the unity of the action, which each author understood in his own way).

The drama decisively supplants the rest of the genres of the 19th century, harmonizing with the evolution of the psychological and everyday novel. The heir of the tragedy are historical chronicles (like the "Trilogy" by Alexei Tolstoy or Ostrovsky's chronicles). At the beginning of the century, melodrama was very popular (like Ducange's still-renewed play "30 Years or the Life of a Player"). In the 70s and 80s, attempts were made to create a special genre of dramatic fairy tales or extravaganzas - setting plays (see Ostrovsky's The Snow Maiden).

In general, for the XIX century. characterized by a mixture of dramatic genres and the destruction of solid boundaries between them.

Plot construction.

Exposure. It is given in the form of conversations. In primitive drama, this was done by introducing a prologue in the old sense of the term, i.e. a special actor who, before the performance, outlined the initial plot situation. With the advent of the principle of realistic motivation, the prologue was introduced into the drama, and its role was entrusted to one of the characters. Direct exposition techniques are a story (motivated, for example, by the introduction of a new person who has just arrived, or by telling a secret hidden until recently, a memory, etc.), recognition, self-characterization (in the form, for example, of friendly outpourings). Indirect techniques - hints, passing messages (for "pedalization", i.e. to attract attention) - these motives for indirect hints are systematically repeated.

Tie. In a drama, the opening is usually not an initial incident leading to a long chain of changing situations, but a task that determines the entire course of the drama. A typical plot is the love of heroes, encountering obstacles. The tie directly "echoes" with the denouement. In the denouement, we have the permission to set the tie. The plot can be given in the exposition, but it can also be moved deeper into the play.

development of intrigue. In general, in dramatic literature, we see the image of overcoming obstacles. At the same time, they play an important role in the drama. motives of ignorance replacing the time shift in the epic story. The resolution of this ignorance, or recognition, makes it possible to delay the introduction of the motive and communicate it belatedly in the course of plot time.

Usually this system of ignorance is complex. Sometimes the viewer does not know what happened and is known to the characters, more often the opposite - the viewer knows what is supposed to be unknown to the character or group of characters (Khlestakov in The Government Inspector, the love of Sophia and Molchalin in Woe from Wit). When unraveling these riddles, such motives as eavesdropping, interception of letters, etc. are characteristic.

Speech system. Classical drama gives us very naked devices for motivating conversations. So, to introduce motives related to what is happening outside the scene, they introduced messengers, or races. For confessions, frequent monologues or speeches "aside" (a parte), which were supposed to be inaudible to those present on stage, were widely used.

exit system. An important point in a dramatic work is the motivation for the exits and departures of the characters. In the old tragedy, the unity of the place was confessed, it was reduced to the use of an abstract place (the rejection of motivation), where, without any special need, the heroes came one after another and, having said what they were supposed to, they also left without motivation. As the demand for realistic motivation arose, the abstract place began to be replaced by a common place like a hotel, square, restaurant, etc., where the characters could naturally gather. In 19th century drama the interieur dominates, i.e. one of the rooms where some character lives, but the main episodes are those that easily motivate a meeting of characters - a name day, a ball, the arrival of a mutual friend, etc.

Interchange. The drama is usually dominated by the traditional denouement (the death of heroes, or the so-called tragic catastrophe, wedding, etc.). Renewal of the denouement does not change the sharpness of perception, for, obviously, the interest of the drama is concentrated not on the denouement, which is usually foreseen, but on unraveling the tangle of obstacles.

Similar information.

All this constitutes a side text of a dramatic work. Its main text is a chain of characters' statements, their replicas and monologues.

Hence some limited artistic possibilities of the drama. The writer-playwright uses only a part of the visual means that are available to the creator of a novel or epic, short story or short story. And the characters of the characters are revealed in the drama with less freedom and fullness than in the epic. “I perceive the drama,” noted T. Mann, “as the art of the silhouette, and I feel only the narrated person as a voluminous, integral, real and plastic image.”

And the performance in the forms familiar to the new European theater lasts, as you know, no more than three or four hours. And this requires an appropriate size of the dramatic text.

Drama is stage oriented. Theater is a public, mass art. The performance directly affects many people, as if merging into one in response to what is happening before them.

The same is true to say about the theater and drama of other countries and eras. T. Mann was right when he called the "comedian instinct" "the fundamental principle of any dramatic skill."

“How he acted out in the theater,” Bubnov (At the Bottom by Gorky) comments on the frenzied tirade of the desperate Klesch, who, by an unexpected intrusion into the general conversation, gave it theatrical effect.

Therefore, Hegel was partly right, considering the drama as a synthesis of the epic beginning (eventfulness) and the lyrical (speech expression).

There are no fundamental differences between the Lesedrama and the play, which the author is oriented towards stage production. Dramas created for reading are often potentially stage dramas. And the theater (including the modern one) stubbornly seeks and sometimes finds the keys to them, evidence of which is the successful productions of Turgenev's "A Month in the Country" (first of all, this is the famous pre-revolutionary performance of the Art Theater) and numerous (though far from always successful) stage readings Pushkin's little tragedies in the 20th century.

The creation of a performance based on a dramatic work is associated with its creative completion: the actors create intonation-plastic drawings of the roles they play, the artist designs the stage space, the director develops the mise-en-scenes. In this regard, the concept of the play changes somewhat (more attention is paid to some of its sides, less attention to others), it is often concretized and enriched: the stage production introduces new semantic shades into the drama.

Significant in this respect is the work of Goethe. All literary genres were available to the great German writer, but he crowned his life in art with the creation of a dramatic work - the immortal Faust.

In past centuries (up to the 18th century), drama not only successfully competed with the epic, but often became the leading form of artistic reproduction of life in space and time.

And although in the XIX-XX centuries. the socio-psychological novel, a genre of epic literature, moved to the forefront of literature; dramatic works still have a place of honor.

V.E. Khalizev Theory of Literature. 1999