On the one hand, when working on a drama, the means that are in the writer’s arsenal are used, but, on the other hand, the work should not be literary. The author describes the events so that the person who reads the test can see everything that happens in his imagination. For example, instead of “they sat at the bar for a very long time,” you can write “they drank six beers,” etc.
In drama, what is happening is shown not through internal reflections, but through external action. Moreover, all events take place in the present tense.
Also, certain restrictions are imposed on the volume of the work, because it must be presented on stage within the allotted time (maximum 3-4 hours).
The demands of drama, as a stage art, leave their mark on the behavior, gestures, and words of the characters, which are often exaggerated. What cannot happen in life in a few hours, in a drama it very well can. At the same time, the audience will not be surprised by the convention, the implausibility, because this genre initially allows them to a certain extent.
In times when books were expensive and inaccessible to many, drama (as a public performance) was the leading form of artistic reproduction of life. However, with the development of printing technologies, it gave way to epic genres. Nevertheless, even today dramatic works remain in demand among society. The main audience for the drama is, of course, theatergoers and moviegoers. Moreover, the number of the latter exceeds the number of readers.
Depending on the method of production, dramatic works can be in the form of plays and scripts. All dramatic works intended for performance on the theatrical stage are called plays (French pi èce).
Dramatic works based on which films are made are scripts.
Both plays and scripts contain author's notes to indicate the time and place of action, indications of the age, appearance of the characters, etc.
The structure of a play or script follows the structure of a story. Usually parts of a play are designated as an act (action), a phenomenon, an episode, a picture.
Main genres of dramatic works:
– drama,
– tragedy,
– comedy,
– tragicomedy,
- farce,
– vaudeville,
– sketch.
Drama
Drama is a literary work that depicts a serious conflict between characters or between characters and society. The relationship between the heroes (heroes and society) in works of this genre is always full of drama. As the plot develops, there is an intense struggle both within individual characters and between them.
Although the conflict in drama is very serious, it can nevertheless be resolved. This circumstance explains the intrigue and tense anticipation of the audience: will the hero (heroes) succeed in getting out of the situation or not.
Drama is characterized by a description of real everyday life, the formulation of “perishable” questions of human existence, a deep disclosure of characters, the inner world of characters.
There are such types of drama as historical, social, philosophical. A type of drama is melodrama. In it, the characters are clearly divided into positive and negative.
Widely known dramas: “Othello” by W. Shakespeare, “The Lower Depths” by M. Gorky, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” by T. Williams.
Tragedy
Tragedy (from the Greek tragos ode - “goat song”) is a literary dramatic work based on an irreconcilable conflict in life. Tragedy is characterized by an intense struggle between strong characters and passions, which ends in a catastrophic outcome for the characters (usually death).
The conflict of a tragedy is usually very deep, has universal significance and can be symbolic. The main character, as a rule, suffers deeply (including from hopelessness), and his fate is unhappy.
The text of the tragedy often sounds pathetic. Many tragedies are written in verse.
Comedy (from the Greek komos ode - “cheerful song”) is a literary dramatic work in which characters, situations and actions are presented comically, using humor and satire. At the same time, the characters can be quite sad or sad.
Usually a comedy presents everything that is ugly and absurd, funny and absurd, and ridicules social or everyday vices.
Comedy is divided into comedy of masks, positions, characters. This genre also includes farce, vaudeville, sideshow, and sketch.
A sitcom (comedy of situations, situational comedy) is a dramatic comedy work in which the source of humor is events and circumstances.
A comedy of characters (comedy of manners) is a dramatic comedy work in which the source of the funny is the inner essence of the characters (morals), funny and ugly one-sidedness, an exaggerated trait or passion (vice, flaw).
A farce is a light comedy, using simple comic techniques and intended for coarse tastes. Usually farce is used in circus shows.
Vaudeville is a light comedy with entertaining intrigue, which contains a large number of dance numbers and songs. In the USA, vaudeville is called a musical. In modern Russia they also usually say “musical”, meaning vaudeville.
An interlude is a small comic skit that is performed between the actions of the main play or performance.
A sketch (eng. sketch - “sketch, draft, sketch”) is a short comedy work with two or three characters. Usually they resort to presenting sketches on stage and television.
Widely known comedies: “Frogs” by Aristophanes, “The Inspector General” by N. Gogol, “Woe from Wit” by A. Griboyedov.
Famous television sketch shows: “Our Russia”, “Town”, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”.
Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is a literary dramatic work in which the tragic plot is depicted in a comic form or is a disorderly accumulation of tragic and comic elements. In tragicomedy, serious episodes are combined with funny ones, sublime characters are shaded by comic characters. The main technique of tragicomedy is the grotesque.
We can say that “tragicomedy is the funny in the tragic” or, conversely, “the tragic in the funny.”
Widely known tragicomedies: “Alcestis” by Euripides, “The Tempest” by W. Shakespeare, “The Cherry Orchard” by A. Chekhov, films “Forrest Gump”, “The Great Dictator”, “That Same Munchasen”.
More detailed information on this topic can be found in the books of A. Nazaikin
What is Comedy?
The text of the tragedy often sounds pathetic. Many tragedies are written in verse.- this is a dramatic work, using satire and humor, ridiculing the vices of society and man, reflecting the funny and base; any funny play. According to Aristotle, the difference between tragedy and comedy is that one seeks to imitate worse, the other better, people than the current ones.
Comedy occupies a prominent place in all literary movements from antiquity to modern times. In Russia, this genre was actively developed by classicists in the 18th century, although it was considered much lower than epic and tragedy. Nevertheless, it was Russian literature of this period that achieved perhaps the greatest success in national comedy (D.I. Fonvizin). In the 19th century, the most outstanding comedies in world literature were created in Russia by A.S. Griboedov, N.V. Gogol, A.N. Ostrovsky and A.P. Chekhov. It is noteworthy that Ostrovsky called all kinds of plays comedies, including such dramatic ones as Talents and Admirers, Guilty Without Guilt; A.P. gave his Chaika the subtitle comedy. Chekhov, and in the Cherry Orchard, it was with a comedic beginning that he tried to smooth out the sadness of saying goodbye to the passing past. In the literature of the 20th century, the best examples of comedy rightfully include Mandate and N.R.’s Suicide. Erdman and plays by M.A. Bulgakov.
The following genre-thematic types of comedies are distinguished: ancient comedy (a cult drama dedicated to Dionysus, performed by a choir and actors); comedy-ballet (a dramatic form created by J.-B. Moliere, who included ballet scenes in the comedy); everyday comedy (the most general name for comedies on topics of everyday life); comedy of masks or commedia dell'arte (the main element of the genre is the collective creativity of actors who acted not only as performers, but also as authors of plays, and each brought something new, using their professional and cultural experience); comedy of ideas (plays in which various theories and ideas are discussed in a witty manner); comedy of intrigue or sitcom (a genre of comedy based on a complex plot with several lines and sharp turns of action); comedy of manners (a genre in which the main attention is paid to the manners and behavior of heroes living according to certain social and ethical rules); comedy of cloak and sword (a genre of Spanish comedy that gets its name from the costumes of the main characters - nobles endowed with self-esteem, faith and devotion to the king); satirical comedy (a form of comedy created to expose and ridicule the vices and stupidity of society); sentimental comedy (Puritan sensitive drama); tearful comedy (the content of such a comedy was of a moral and didactic nature, and touching sentimental scenes replaced the comic ones); learned comedy (a genre widespread in Italy in the 16th century, which arose as a result of imitation of ancient comedy, using the traditions of action-packed Italian short stories); comedy of characters (here the exaggerated one-sidedness of human qualities was depicted - deceit, hypocrisy, boasting, etc.).
Each of us can probably explain in our own words what comedy is. However, if you try to put the definition of this concept on paper, you encounter difficulties, because explanations like “this is when it’s funny” sound too simple.
It is known that the understanding of the comic is attributed to the rites of antiquity.
We will now try to deduce what a comedy concept is.
The subject of comedy, its types
In literature, high types of comedy and puns are distinguished. High types include such works as “Don Quixote” by M. de Cervantes.
Types of comic
Before we begin to understand what comedy is in literature, let us first consider the types of comedy.
These include: humor, irony, satire, sarcasm, grotesque.
Humor can be defined as non-malicious laughter.
Irony is mockery based on criticism. Among Russian writers, Pushkin often used irony, for example, in the poem “Eugene Onegin”: “The girls jump in advance”, “In the village the horned one is happy.”
Sarcasm is the highest degree of irony and translated from Greek means “tearing meat.”
Satire is a way of reproducing reality, the purpose of which is unpleasant criticism.
The grotesque is easy to distinguish from other types of comics because it is difficult to separate the funny from the scary and terrible. This type of comic is characteristic of Gogol (“The Nose”) and Mayakovsky (“The Bedbug,” “Bathhouse”).
What is comedy in literature? Definition
From a scientific point of view, comedy is a special type of drama in which the conflict or opposition of characters is resolved in a specific way.
Wrestling in comedy is different in that it:
Does not lead to serious consequences;
Aimed at small, mercantile goals;
It is carried out in funny ways and means.
Comedy theme
In order to fully answer the question “what is comedy,” it is necessary to understand the peculiarities of its subject matter.
It certainly depends on the wants and needs of the class that creates it. Of course, the creators take into account the interests of those for whom it is aimed.
It is worth noting that comedic heat is very resistant to the effects of time. So, for example, from the times of antiquity to the present day, a scheme of intrigue has been preserved in which parents oppose the union of young people, but they are forced to accept it by a third party who helps the young people arrange happiness.
Types of Comedy
To answer the question “what is comedy,” it is necessary to understand what types of this genre can be distinguished.
The first type to be mentioned is the comedy of manners. It depicts human characters and their confrontation.
Now let's figure out what a sitcom is. In it, laughter is caused by certain ridiculous actions and behavior of the characters.
History of Comedy
Comedies have existed since ancient times. Aristophanes is considered the most famous author of that time. We have received information about 11 comedies written by this author in 425-388. BC e., for example “Clouds”, “Frogs”. Ancient comedies are characterized by ridicule of human vices, a clear tracing of the author's assessment of everything that happens.
The interlude (small comic play), farce (light comedy with external comic features), soti (sharp satire), fastnachtspiel (Mardi Gras play) appears.
The Renaissance is characterized by attention to. Among the authors of that time, the most famous is W. Shakespeare (“The Taming of the Shrew,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”). The main idea of this author's works is the idea of the dominance of nature over the human soul.
The era of classicism ridicules human vices and ignorance (Moliere's comedies, for example, “The Imaginary Invalid”).
Enlightenment calls on comedians to turn to common sense.
The era of romanticism gives us comedy based on the idea that the world cannot be perfect. In the 19th century, the features of the comic were associated with ideas about the aesthetic ideal, which included common ideas about human life. In Russian literature, this tendency is manifested in the immortal works of D.I. Fonvizina, A.S. Griboyedova, N.V. Gogol.
The literature of the 20th century is characterized by social and everyday comedies (V. Mayakovsky, M. Bulgakov).
This article examines in some detail the question of what comedy is. It should be noted that this genre is the most popular these days and enjoys special love, because, as you know, laughter prolongs life, and the opportunity to see the comical in life makes our everyday life brighter and easier.
a genre of drama in which actions and characters are presented in the forms of the comic, funny, and are distinguished by their nature into humorous, satirical and tragicomedy. In a broad sense - a funny, uncomfortable situation, a story, often with an ironic tinge.
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COMEDY
From?????? and ????, the original cheerful song, one can assume, had a similar origin as tragedy, although we do not have definite and accurate information about the initial stages of development of both. On the holidays of Dionysus, especially during the grape harvest, winegrowers and villagers united to honor Dionysus. This meeting was voluntary (unofficial, so to speak) and stood only in distant relation to the cult itself. Perhaps very early from such a meeting a choir of 24 people stood out; he acted as if on behalf of a celebrating community, animated by the action of wine, which, due to the freedom befitting those celebrating, enjoys the right to all kinds of jokes and ridicule. Cheerful, free songs, full of witticisms and ridicule, formed the main part of this celebration; Moreover, they allowed themselves other kinds of fun, and especially teased those passing by. The reward for singing was a wineskin filled with wine. From these festive customs and these jokes, they say, poetry originated in Greece and little by little developed into a special type of dramatic poetry. The founder of K. in Attica is called a certain Susarion, who allegedly lived c. 580 BC. However, they say that K. already existed among the Megarians, who were famous for their unbridled gaiety and mockery. The development of capitalism in Megara could also have been facilitated by the very free state structure that existed there at one time. But even if it reached a certain degree of development among the Megarians, in all likelihood it did not stray far from the nature of improvised jokes and farces. However, information about Megarian K. is extremely scarce and dark. cm. v. Wilamowitz in Hermes, vol. 9, p. 319 sll. Doric K. was also developed in Sicily, especially by Epicharmus ( cm. Epicharmus, Epicharmus). The latter took plots for his comedies from mythology. He is praised for his ingenuity in composition and his ability to come up with cheerful motifs and striking contrasts. Wed about K. dorian: Grysar, de Doriensium comoedia (1828). In Athens, K. began to develop from the above-mentioned Megarian farces only from the time of the Persian Wars. The earliest attempts of this kind are attributed to Chionides. In the history of artistic painting, three periods are usually distinguished:
1. ancient K. (? ??????? ???????) flourished until the enslavement of Athens by the power of the thirty (404 BC). The most prominent of the poets of this period, whom we know until about forty, were Cratinus, Crates, Eupolis, Pherecrates, Phrynichus, and especially Aristophanes. Only from the latter have complete dramas (11) come down to us, from which we can recognize the essence and characteristics of this kind of K. Every weakness, every moral vice, every political absurdity and every harmful trait in the direction of even the most respectable and influential persons was indulged in this K. to ridicule. She did not spare the gods and heroes themselves, making the subject of caricature and the most free ridicule of the weaknesses and vices with which popular belief endowed them. Ambitious but inexperienced commanders, restless and arrogant demagogues, funny philosophers and harmful sophists, poets and orators - she brought out all of them under their own names, even reproducing the appearance of each with the help of masks, specially made for each occasion. She gave no mercy to anyone who seemed deserving of the scourge of the scoffers. In this case, of course, the image had the character of a caricature. Dirty images and comparisons, greasy jokes and expressions are not uncommon in her. K. Aristophanes has a completely social character; it concerns all aspects of both political and private life and brings them mercilessly onto the stage, to public shame. Thus, ancient culture plays the role of a kind of political censorship and expresses public opinion with unlimited freedom. Each of the plays of this comedy represents the entire life of the state in its entirety at some separate but important moment, as if reflecting its general state. But, of course, she did not suddenly and only slowly realized the full scope of this critical task of hers. For its development, K. must have before it modernity, full of movement and contradictions, since K. lives in modernity and acts on it. And these conditions appeared in Athens especially since the time of ochlocracy, which provided comedians with abundant inexhaustible material for their images. In a few years, the ochlocracy completely shook the previous, tradition-sanctified foundations of the life of Attic society. The cause of destruction was promoted not only by demagogues, but also by fanatical priests of unbelief and native or Asian superstition, men of science and representatives of sophistic education. Ancient China made this disintegration of the state and society the subject of her images. Therefore, she tirelessly castigates the perverse politics and anarchy in the state, the short-sightedness of statesmen, the injustice of the decisions of the council and courts, the depravity of the national character manifested in public and family life, the destruction of the principles of religion and education that bind society, as well as the destruction of class differences and the ease with which people received civil rights and people whose Attic origin was more or less doubtful achieved influence. K. idealizes people and their deeds in the sense opposite to tragedy, that is, he exaggerates everything that is bad and low. While tragedy strives for harmonious unity, K. for a long time retains traces of its origins from the festive, improvised, riotous farce, which does not obey any laws, allowing the sharpest contradictions in its composition, without at all fearing violations of the laws of unity of time or place or sequence in the development of action and characters, but, on the contrary, deliberately using these violations as special joke techniques. Just as in the area of characteristics ancient K. is far from slavishly accurate reproduction of reality and constantly gives caricatures, so in the structure of the plot she does not care at all about verisimilitude: her action has a purely fantastic character. The obscenity of jokes and images, which strikes a new reader in the works of ancient K., is explained not only by the difference between modern concepts of decency from the concepts of the ancients, but also by the fact that ancient K. developed from the riotous and cheerful rituals of the Dionysus holiday. Such a holiday was a carnival of its own, at which the celebrants gave full rein to discovering the sensual side of human nature. It should be noted that among ancient comedians, obscene jokes and witticisms very often did not come from an empty desire to make the audience laugh, but served a serious moral purpose of flagellating vice and stupidity. The language of ancient K. is pure Atticism, both in dialogue and for the most part in choir songs, which are also characteristic of this period of K., as well as tragedy. The choir consisted of 24 persons, who were often divided into two half-choirs. The dance of the comic choir was called?????? ( cm. Cordax); it consisted of very frisky, sometimes even obscene movements and jumps. The peculiarity of the choral lyrical part of ancient K. was the so-called ?????????. The parabaza was something like an intermezzo and, strictly speaking, was in conflict with the requirements of dramatic art, since it destroyed illusions and interrupted the action in order to allow the poet to explain himself to the audience. Namely, after the plot position (exposition) ended and the topic was sufficiently clarified, there was a pause in the dialogue. Then the choir, which until that time had been facing the stage, taking part in the action taking place on it, turned in the orchestra to face the audience and in this position (????? ??? ??????? ???? ??????) expressed the desires and complaints of the poet, exposing his merits, etc., and at the same time glorified the gods of his native land, condemning the shortcomings of public life and the activities of government officials. In the most ancient period of cinema there were usually two such parabases in each play; the second, like the first, was inserted after the conclusion of some significant section of dramatic action; being a deviation from the actual poetic goals of the play towards the interests of reality, they served as something like a program for the comedian, on whose behalf in this case the leader of the choir usually spoke. Wed: Agthe, die Parabase und die Zwischenakte der att. Kom?die (1866). Addition to this work (1868) R. Arnoldt. Die Chorpartien bei Aristophanes (1873). The performances took place on the holidays of Lenya and the city Dionysius and took the form of competitions, to which leading times 3 poets were allowed, later 5. About the costumes of ancient K. cm. Ludi scaenici, Theater performances;
3. the new K. (? ??? ???????), finally, was even more moderate, more decent; her composition was even more elaborate. Political and social life completely disappeared from the scene; K. characters appeared. Here the action was subordinated to the unity of a strictly thought-out plan, developing consistently from beginning to end. The transition from beginning to end was done in such a way that the viewer’s attention remained constantly in tension. The art consisted in depicting the character correctly, in accordance with reality, strictly carrying it out and, moreover, maintaining the unity of the entire action of the connecting plan. The chief poets of this kind of poetry were Menander, the most famous of all, then Philippides, Posidippus, Philemon, Diphilus and Apollodorus. The characters and types mainly derived by these poets are the same as those we find in their imitators - Plautus and Terence: leno periurus, amator fervidus, servulus callidus, arnica illudens, sodalis opitulator, miles proeliator, parasitus edax, parentes tenaces, meretices procaces. The chorus in such K. appeared, probably, even less often than in the middle K. An excellent collection of surviving excerpts from Attic comedians, ed. Meineke, fragmenta comicorum Graecorum (4 vols., 1839, seq.), to it as volume 5: comicae dictionis index compos. H. Iacobi (1857). A shorter edition of the same collection in 2 volumes (1847). A collection of passages with a Latin translation by Bothe (1855 and 1868). New meeting: Th. Kock, Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta (1 volume, 1880). Among the Romans, the first public stage performances appeared, according to Livy (7, 2), in 363 BC, due to the infection that broke out at that time, since among other means to appease the wrath of the gods they also resorted to stage performances games (ludi scaenici) and for this purpose actors were called from Etruria. These actors performed a kind of mimetic dance without words; It was the Romans who first introduced it. In 241 BC. Livius Andronicus ( cm. Livii, Libya, 11), a Greek freedman, composed, according to Greek models, the first play that had a definite plan, and performed it to the accompaniment of a flutist. When such plays were presented during intermissions or at the end of the performance, Roman youth acted out such jokes and funny scenes that, of course, have long served as entertainment for both the Roman and other Italian peoples. Later, these jokes were replaced by atellans as a divertissement. Wed Exodium, Exod, and Fabula, Fabula. The most ancient artistic art of the Romans was an imitation of the newest Greek art. Plautus and Terence, from whose works we only know Roman culture, express, however, some independence in relation to their Greek models, but still they do not retreat far from them. Naevius tried to introduce the methods of ancient Greek K., boldly attacking the most powerful among the Romans, his contemporaries, but he paid for this attempt with imprisonment, and did not find imitators. Roman culture constantly takes its subjects from the area of private relationships between people and family life; it never had a social or political character. It was placed too low in the state and in public life and was never a state institution, as in Athens. She tried to maintain the interest of the audience with a skillful arrangement of the plot; The latter was usually either a wedding, or a method of recognition (????????????), which consisted, for example, in the fact that persons who considered themselves alien to each other turned out to be closest relatives, a girl who was considered a slave turned out to be a free citizen, etc. This K. had a relatively small stock of typical characters, repeating them with minor changes in different plays, repeating the very methods of characterization. The Roman book consisted of the following components: a prologue (prologus), something like a preface, which usually reported on the content of the play and recommended it to the attention of the public, a dialogue (diverbium, i.e. duiverbium) and the so-called canticum, under which previously, probably , meant only monologues. Research by Ritschl and Bergk, based on the fact that in the manuscripts of comedians, scribes in certain scenes put the signs DV and C as abbreviations instead of diverbium and canticum, showed that the number of cantics is much greater than previously believed, since among them It turns out that, in addition to monodies (or solos), there are also alternating (i.e., alternately performed by two persons) songs, and even often parts performed through singing and to the accompaniment of music take precedence over dialogue. This reveals their significant departure from Greek comedies. The Roman K. did not have a choir. K., which followed Greek models and represented Greek life and Greek morals, was called fabulae palliata; K., in which Roman life and Roman morals were depicted and the characters appeared in Roman clothes, were called fabula togatae. The most wonderful authors K. of the first kind (f. pall.) were: Naevius, Plautus, Ennius. Atilius, Statius Caecilius and Terence; K. of the second kind (f. tog.): Titinius, Quintius Atta and especially L. Afranius. About the actors' costumes cm. Ludi scaenici, Theater performances, 9 sll. The best collection of excerpts from Roman Q. ed. O. Ribbeck (Comicorum romanorum fragmenta, 2 volumes of the book Scaenicae romanorum poesis fragmenta, 2nd edition published in 1873).
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