Chapter 4

Genre A French word meaning “category” or “type” Oldest and best-know genres are:

▪ Tragedy▪ Comedy

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Tragedy – Dramatic form involving serious actions of universal significance and with important moral and philosophical implications, usually with an unhappy ending.

Conditions or Climate for Tragedy – (Golden Age in Greece 5th Century BCE and Renaissance 14th-17th century in Europe)

1) Human beings are capable of vast accomplishments

2) World is potentially cruel and unjust

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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

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Modern Tragedy No queens or kings as central figures Written in prose rather than poetry Probe the same depths and ask the same

questions

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Comedy – in general, a play that is light in tone, concerned with issues that are not serious, has a happy ending and is designed to amuse.

Characteristics of Comedy Suspension of Natural Laws

▪ Slapstick – Type of comedy or comic business that relies on ridiculous physical activity – often violent in nature – for its humor.

Contrast Between Individuals and the Social Order The Comic Premise

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Comic Premise – Idea or concept in a comedy that turns the accepted notion of things upside down.

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Comedy (Point of View) – the world is relatively normal and the individual is absurd and out of sync with reality. (Tartuffe, Pee-wee Herman, many Jim Carey movies)

Modern Comedies and especially Tragicomedy (Point of View) – The world is absurd and ridiculous and an ordinary person is set at odds against it. (Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Zombieland)

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Forms of Comedy Farce – dramatic genre usually regarded as a subclass of comedy,

with emphasis on plot complications and with few or no intellectual pretensions.

▪ 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

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Forms of Comedy continued

Burlesque – Satire of a more serious form of drama

▪ Relies on knockabout physical humor, gross exaggeration, and occasional vulgarity

▪ Historically, it was a ludicrous imitation of other forms of drama

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11Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” (A Comedy of Manners) © 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Forms of Comedy continued

Satire▪ Uses wit, especially sophisticated language; irony;

and exaggeration to expose or attack evil and foolishness

▪ http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-7-2009/slim-thug-feels-the-recession

Domestic Comedy▪ Usually deals with family situations▪ Found in TV situation comedies

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Forms of Comedy continued

Comedy of Manners – form of comic drama that became popular in 17th century France and the English Restoration, emphasizing a cultivated or sophisticated atmosphere and witty dialogue.

▪ Concerned with pointing out 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

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Heroic Drama – serious but basically optimistic drama, written in verse or elevated prose, with noble or heroic characters in extreme situations or unusual adventures

Serious drama that has heroic or noble characters and certain other traits of classic tragedy

Has a happy ending Assumes a basically optimistic worldview

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Domestic Drama (or Bourgeois) – drama dealing with problems – particularly family problems – of middle and lower class characters.

Deals with people from everyday life instead of kings, queens, and nobility In last 150 years, has replaced both classical tragedy and

heroic drama as the predominant type of serious drama Common themes are:

▪ Problems of society▪ Struggles within a family▪ Dashed hopes▪ Renewed determination

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Melodrama Means “song drama” or “music drama” Originally comes from the Greek Made popular by the French at end of 18th

century and beginning of 19th century “Music” refers to the background music that

accompanied these plays

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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

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Tragicomedy – during the Renaissance, a play having tragic themes and noble characters but a happy ending; today, a play in which serious and comic elements are integrated.

▪ Point of view is mixed▪ Prevailing attitude is a synthesis, or fusion, of the

serious and the comic

Shakespearean Tragicomedy Modern Tragicomedy Theatre of the Absurd – Plays expressing the

dramatist’s sense of the absurdity of human existence.

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