Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Translator's note
- A note on the English edition
- 1 Drama and the dramatic
- 2 Drama and the theatre
- 3 Sending and receiving information
- 4 Verbal communication
- 5 Dramatis personae and dramatic figure
- 6 Story and plot
- 7 Structures of time and space
- Concluding note
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of authors
6 - Story and plot
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Translator's note
- A note on the English edition
- 1 Drama and the dramatic
- 2 Drama and the theatre
- 3 Sending and receiving information
- 4 Verbal communication
- 5 Dramatis personae and dramatic figure
- 6 Story and plot
- 7 Structures of time and space
- Concluding note
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of authors
Summary
Story, plot and situation
Story
Story as the basis of dramatic and narrative texts
Ever since Aristotle's Poetics (chs. 6 and 14) – that is, from the very beginnings of dramatic theory – critics have agreed unanimously that the macrostructure of every dramatic text is founded on a story, though of course the concept of what actually constitutes a story has given rise to a whole range of different interpretations varying considerably in precision and breadth. At this point we should like to define ‘story’ formally as something that requires the three following ingredients: one or more human or anthropomorphic subjects, a temporal dimension indicating the passing of time and a spatial dimension giving a sense of space. Interpreted this way, story provides the foundation underlying not only every dramatic text, but also every narrative. On the basis of this criterion alone, then, it is not possible to distinguish between these two types of text, though it does set them apart from both argumentative texts, whose macrostructure is based on a logically or psychologically coherent flow of argument (essay, treatise, sermon, ‘reflective poetry’ etc.) and from descriptive texts that describe concrete and static objects or states of affair (topography, blazon, character description etc.).
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- Information
- The Theory and Analysis of Drama , pp. 196 - 245Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988