DRAMA AS GENRE OF LITERATURE

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 INTRODUCTION

In this unit, you will learn some definitions of drama. You will understand that all actions are not drama. You will be able to distinguish between drama and ordinary activity. You will see that both government and other agencies use drama to educate the people, disseminate information or to mobilize them to accept or reject any concept, action or programme. Most of you relax with dramatic presentations either in the theatre or in your houses as you watch home videos, soap operas or films. As you watch these presentations, you will be able to learn one thing or the other while you are being entertained. This explains why drama is regarded as the mother of all arts, as it is used to inform, educate and entertain the people.

3.1 Drama as a Genre of Literature

What is Literature?

Literature springs from our inborn love of telling a story, of arranging words in pleasing patterns, of expressing in words some special aspect of our human experience. It is usually set down in printed characters for us to read, though some forms of it are performed on certain social occasions. There are a number of different branches such as drama, poetry, the novel, the short story; all these are works of the imagination arising from man’s capacity for invention. The primary aim of literature is to give pleasure, to entertain those who voluntarily attend to it. There are, of course, many different ways of giving pleasure or entertainment, ranging from the most philosophical and profound. It is important to note that the writer of literature is not tied to fact in quite the same way as the historian, the economist or the scientist, whose studies are absolutely based on what has actually happened, or on what actually does happen, in the world of reality.

Why is Literature Important?

We soon discover, however that the literature which entertains us best does not keep us for long in the other-world of fantasy or unreality. The greatest pleasure and satisfaction to be found in literature occurs where (as it so often does) it brings us back to the realities of human situations, problems, feelings and relationships. The writers of literature, being less tied to fact than the historian or the scientist, have more scope to comment on the facts, to arrange them in unusual ways to speculate not only on what is, but on what ought to be, or what might be. Writers are sometimes, therefore people with visionary or prophetic insights into human life.

Literature is an imaginative art which expresses thoughts and feelings of the artist on events around him. In most cases, it deals with life experiences. The author/artist uses words in a powerful, effective and captivating manner to paint his picture of human experience. Literature is a form of recreation. The three genres of literature are fiction, drama and poetry. You have seen that drama is a genre of literature. A person who writes a novel is called a novelist, the person who writes a play is a playwright while the poet writes poetry. All of us who read literature will find our knowledge of human affairs broadened and deepened, whether in the individual, the social, the racial or the international sphere; we shall understand the possibilities of human life, both for good and evil; we shall understand how we came to live at a particular time and place, with all its pleasures and vexations and problems; and we shall perhaps be able to make right rather than wrong choices. Literature can be in written or oral form. It could also be presented in form of performance.

3.2 What is Drama

Drama as a literary genre is realized in performance, which is why Robert Di Yanni (quoted in Dukore) describes it as “staged art” (867). As a literary form, it is designed for the theatre because characters are assigned roles and they act out their roles as the action is enacted on stage. These characters can be human beings, dead or spiritual beings, animals, or abstract qualities. Drama is an adaptation, recreation and reflection of reality on stage. Generally, the word, dramatist is used for any artist who is involved in any dramatic composition either in writing or in performance.

Drama is different from other genres of literature. It has unique characteristics that have come about in response to its peculiar nature. Really, it is difficult to separate drama from performance because during the stage performance of a play, drama brings life experiences realistically to the audience. It is the most concrete of all genres of literature. When you are reading a novel, you read a story as told by the novelist. The poem’s message in most cases is not direct because it is presented in a compact form or in a condensed language. The playwright does not tell the story instead you get the story as the characters interact and live out their experiences on stage. In drama, the characters/actors talk to themselves and react to issues according to the impulse of the moment. Drama is therefore presented in dialogue.

You can see that as a genre of literature, drama occupies a unique position. It is also the most active of other genres of literature because of the immediate impact it has on the audience. It is used to inform, to educate to entertain and in some cases to mobilize the audience.

Most people associate funny action or other forms of entertainment as drama. An action could be dramatic yet it will not be classified as drama.

The dramatic is used for any situation or action which creates a sense of an abnormality or the unexpected. Sometimes we use it to describe an action that is demonstrated or exaggerated. For instance, if you are at a bus stop, a well-dressed young girl passes and cat-walks across the road, her high-healed shoes breaks and she slips, the immediate reaction will be laughter from almost everybody there. For some people, this is drama. Although she was walking in an abnormal way and unexpectedly her shoe breaks, her action could be called dramatic but it is not dramatic action. Again, the action of a teacher who demonstrates, by injecting life into his teaching as he acts out certain situations, is dramatic but it is not drama.

What then is drama? Drama is an imitation of life. Drama is different from other forms of literature because of its unique characteristics. It is read, but basically, it is composed to be performed, so the ultimate aim of dramatic composition is for it to be presented on stage before an audience. This implies that it a medium of communication. It has a message to communicate to the audience. It uses actors to convey this message. This brings us to the issue of mimesis or imitation. We say that drama is mimetic which means that it imitates life. You may have heard people say that drama mirrors life. Yes, it is the only branch of literature which tries to imitate life and presents it realistically to the people. It is this mimetic impulse of drama that makes it appeal to people. Drama thrives on action.

The term drama is used at the following three (3) different levels:

1. Performance

2. Composition

3. Branch of Literature.

(1) Performance

Drama is used for plays that are acted on stage or screen. These plays are different from musical performances because they must tell stories which are acted out by actors and actresses. You remember what we said earlier about imitation or re-enactment and impersonation. These actors and actresses must be playing roles by imitating other characters. It means, therefore, that they must assume other people’s personalities by bearing different names, ages, occupation, nationalities, etc. Finally, they must be conscious of themselves as actors by trying hard to pretend that they are the characters they are representing.

(2) Composition

Drama is used to describe a dramatic composition which employs language and pantomime to present a story or series of events intended to be performed. Sometimes, especially with written compositions, they may not be presented on stage but this does not stop it from being drama. In as much as a play is enjoyed more when it is performed, you can still read a play and be entertained by it.

(3) Branch of Literature

Drama is a term used for that branch of literature that covers dramatic composition. You know already that drama is a literary art. The basic difference between drama and other forms of literature (prose and poetry) is that drama is presented in dialogue from the beginning to the end. Any information by the playwright is given in stage- direction. We have dialogue in prose and poetry but they are interjected in the course of the story.

3.3 Definition of Drama

There are many definitions of drama.

Martin Esslin in Anatomy of Drama has the following definitions of drama:

1. Drama can be seen as a manifestation of the play instinct as in children who are playing mother and father.

2. Drama is something one goes to see, which is organized as something to be seen.

3. It is an enacted fiction an art form based on mimetic action.

4. In arts, drama is the most elegant expression of thought nearest to the truth (reality).

5. It is the most concrete form in which art can recreate human situation, human relationship (57).

Aristotle’s definitions sum up these and other numerous definitions of drama by different scholars. He defines drama simply as an imitation of an action. He links it to the mimetic impulse in human beings like children playing father and mother in a childhood play. This means that imitation is part of life. Human beings have the desire to imitate others, situations or events.

However, Betolt Brecht insists that drama is not just an imitation of action, but a tool for the demonstration of social conditions. It is not just an entertainment but an instrument of political and social change. From these definitions, we can conclude that drama is a way of creating or recreating a situation, an articulation of reality through impersonation or re-enactment. An action becomes drama if it is an imitation of an earlier action real or imagined. For instance, the story of a hunter who goes to the forest, kills an antelope and takes it home even if he is dancing as he goes home, is not drama. It becomes drama if the same story is re- enacted maybe as part of a festival. In the later case, some people (actors) will represent the hunter and the antelope to the audience for entertainment or education. A young man who aspires to be a hunter could learn, from the presentation, how to stalk an animal or how to aim the gun or bow while being entertained. This story could be represented through mime, dance or in dialogue.

3.4 Imitation

Imitation to some extent is a reflection of an action in real life. It is close to reality but not reality. In imitation you assume a role and not pretend. You take on or claim the personality of the person you are imitating. An imitation therefore involves an illusion of the reality and a willing suspension of disbelief. The actor creates an illusion of reality to make his action credible. The audience in order to believe him suspends its doubt (disbelief) and believes that what it is watching is real. This explains why sometimes you are moved to tears as you watch the suffering of a particular character when you are watching a home video or any other dramatic presentation. This is called empathy, according to Aristotle, mimesis (imitation) entails some copying but not verbatim copying. The artist adjusts or adds to it. He therefore contributes to the original as he creates another world through imitation. Consequently, the product becomes not an appearance but a reality or at worst, a reflection of the reality. It is important to note here that the action might not have existed before in reality. The playwright could imagine or conceptualize an action, then write it down or present it.

3.5 Impersonation

Imitation is a broader term for copying somebody or something. In impersonation we narrow it down to copying people. Generally, we impersonate or pretend to be somebody in order to deceive people or to entertain them. Usually, in an impersonation, the actor tries to be as convincing as possible. In acting this is called getting into the role. Impersonation could be interchanged with role-playing.

You have seen that impersonation is an important ingredient in drama because for the action to be real or life-like, the actors must convince the audience that they are the person or characters they are impersonating.

3.6 Re-Presentation

Re-presentation is to give or show something again. In drama, the artist may have been inspired by a particular action and decides to re-produce it or re-represent it on stage. Here, it is not possible to re-present the action exactly as it appeared in its original form. Sometimes the dramatic composition is based on that action. We also use re- presentation when a particular performance is being presented again after its premiere or the original and first performance.

From our discussion so far, you have seen that the universal elements of drama are imitation, re-representation of action, impersonation or re- enactment. In any dramatic presentation, the actors must be conscious of themselves as actors, and also conscious of the audience. On the part of the audience, there must be an element of make believe or willing suspension of disbelief. This simply means that, they will pretend that what the actors are doing is real. On the part of the actors, they try as much as possible to convince the audience that they are presenting real life experience. This explains why you see actors who display realistic emotions on stage. For instance, an actor can cry realistically if the need arises. In order to achieve this feat, they try to get into the role they are playing so that the action will be as realistic as possible.

3.7 Re-enactment

Re-enactment is similar to re-representation. However, in re-enactment, there is a clear indication that a particular action is being re-enacted. Persons or actions will impersonate specific characters in the original action. In traditional societies or oral literature, re-enactment is common and popular. During festivals, depending on the cultural background of the people and the environment, some events like hunting expedition, fishing, physical prowess and special feats at wars are re-enacted. In the enactment of a hunting expedition, some people are chosen to impersonate the animals while some impersonate the hunter who stalks and kills the animal. The jubilation and the dance of triumph end the performance.

Some dances like the “Egwu amala” from Delta State and some masquerades are used to re-enact past events or actions. Historical plays are mainly re-enactments of past events.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

i. In your own words, define drama.

ii. What is the basic difference between drama and other genres of literature?

4.0 CONCLUSION

Drama is an imitation of an action. It is a branch of literature which is both literary art and representational art. As a literary art, it deals with fiction or an imaginary story that is presented through characters and dialogue. However, it is a special kind of fiction because it is designed to be acted out rather than narrated. When we read a novel or a short story, we understand and appreciate the story, through the narrator or author but in drama the characters live out the story for us. The playwright does not comment or explain anything. So, drama gives us a direct presentation of life experiences. That is why we say that it is a representational art. Drama, therefore, uses language in the form of gesture…..or dialogue to present or to re-present an action. Characters are used to present the story. These characters are called actors.

5.0 SUMMARY

In this unit, we have tried to explain the meaning of drama. We have also tried to distinguish it from other forms of literature. By now you must have been familiar with the basic elements of drama which make drama unique. You have seen also that the term drama is used at three different levels now. It is a performance, it is a composition to be read or performed and it is a branch of literature.

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGMENT

1. Give two definitions of drama by two different scholars and discuss them in the light of your understanding of the genre.

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS

Dukore, B. F. (1974). Dramatic Theory and Criticism: Greek to Grotowsky. New York: Holt Reinhart and Winston.

Scholes, R. and C. H. Klaus (1971). Elements of Drama. New York: Oxford University Press.