Drama

• gap between external communication

  (whole performance)and internal

  communication (among characters on stage)

  ↳ discrepant awareness: spectators

  and characters have different levels

  of information about the events in the play
• dramatic introduction: establishes situation, atmosphere & relation to audience

  initial/isolated exposition: (presented in prologue or informative reports and dialogs in the first act) introduces characters and gives relevant context -> suspense

  integrated exposition: successively reveals relevant information -> helps audience to

  better understand initial situation/major problem (especially prominent in analytic drama)

  -> piece by piece revelation, audience more involved
• discrepant awareness: Spectators and characters have different levels of information, they may have advance information, e. g. reviews, genre, title -> influence performance

  congruent awareness: same levels of information given as the characters
• dramatic irony

  exploits audiences external view -> spectators

  understand implications of a characters actions

  that they don't understand themselves
• monologue: speech of a character -> intented for other characters on stage

  ↳ becomes soliloquy if speaking character is alone on stage
• Core functions of language

  · expressive function -> characters express emotions, attitudes and motives

  · referential function -> reffers to characters, events, circumstances

  · appellative function -> appeals to other characters (questions, imperatives

  · phatic function -> initiates or maintains contact between characters

  · metalingual function -> explicitly reflect on language as a topic (e. g. comments, 'What do you mean?

  · poetic function -> foregrounds imagery, sound and rhythm of language
• foil: character can serve as mirror for another/inverting the others features

  -> play of each other's strenghts and weaknesses
• act: primary division of a dramatic work,

  recognizable by the action happening

  within

  Scene: part of a play in which the action

  stays in one place for a continous

  period of time, smallest unit

  of the play