Lecture 1
Drama
16th shakserbare
drama in England suffered a decline
17th : congreve
18th : sheriden + Goldsmith
. It was revived
last decade of 19th
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Two important factors were responsible for the revival of drama in 1890's
1- the influence of Ibsen
gave rise to the Comedy of Ideas or Purpose
2-was the cynical atmosphere prevailing at that time
revived the Comedy of Manners
or the Artificial Comedy
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The new dramatists dealt mainly with the problems of labour and of youth
fighting against romantic love, capitalism and parental authority which were the characteristic features of Victorianism
The characters in their plays are constantly questioning restless and dissatisfied.
dramatists introduced Nature and Life in drama
In the new drama of ideas, action became slow and frequently interrupted
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The two important dramatists who took a predominant part in the revival of drama in the last decade of the nineteenth century
George Bernard Shaw
Comedy of Ideas
was a great thinker
represented the Puritan side of the Anglo-Irish tradition.
Oscar Wilde,
Comedy of-Manners.
luxury and frivolity, was not a deep thinker as Shaw; and his attitude to life was essentially a playful one .
a social entertainer,
Other modem writers who have followed Wilde directly are Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward.
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There has been the revival of Poetic Drama in the twentieth century, whose most important practitioner was T. S. Eliot.
Christopher Fry, Stephen Philips and Stephen Spender
times have a religious theme, and they attempt to preach the doctrine of Christianity .
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1- Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
father of modem realistic drama
1- experimental plays
indebted to the French well-made play of Scribe and to romantic and traditional patterns
in Lady Inger Of Ostrat (1855), Love's Comedy (1862), The Pretenders (1863).
2-exile to Rome, the poetic dramas
Brand (1866) and Peer Gynt (1867).
3- in Germanythe realistic social stage
in A Doll's House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck and others
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Modern dramatist
the emphasis on discussion rather than external action
and the use or rather the perfection of technical devices such as the retrospective method which gives scope to the clash of ideas and narration rather than presentation of events.
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Model Questions
1- After the death of Shakespeare and his contemporaries drama in England suffered a………for two centuries
2- Drama was revived in the last decade of the………