A Narratology of Drama: Dramatic Storytelling in Theory, History, and Culture from the Renaissance to the Twenty-First Century

Christine Schwanecke

Book

A Narratology of Drama

Dramatic Storytelling in Theory, History, and Culture from the Renaissance to the Twenty-First Century

Christine Schwanecke

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2022

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This book is in the series

Volume 80 | Narratologia

About this book

This volume argues against Gérard Genette’s theory that there is an “insurmountable opposition” between drama and narrative and shows that the two forms of storytelling have been productively intertwined throughout literary history. Building on the idea that plays often incorporate elements from other genres, especially narrative ones, the present study theorises drama as a fundamentally narrative genre. Guided by the question of how drama tells stories, the first part of the study delineates the general characteristics of dramatic narration and zooms in on the use of narrative forms in drama. The second part proposes a history of dramatic storytelling from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century that transcends conventional genre boundaries. Close readings of exemplary British plays provide an overview of the dominant narrative modes in each period and point to their impact in the broader cultural and historical context of the plays. Finally, the volume argues that throughout history, highly narrative plays have had a performative power that reached well beyond the stage: dramatic storytelling not only reflects socio-political realities, but also largely shapes them.

Author / Editor information

Christine Schwanecke, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Foreword Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Prologue Publicly Available Download PDF	XV
Part I: Towards a Transgeneric and Contextual Theory of Narrative in Drama, Or, Reframing ‘Drama’ as a Narrative Genre
1 ‘Enter Drama!’ Putting the Genre (Back) Centre Stage in the Study of Literature and Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
2 Rising Action: Towards a Narratology of Drama Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	35
3 Suggestions for a Peripeteia in Drama and Narrative Theory: A Culturally Sensitive Narratology of Drama and Dramatic Narration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	57
Part II: The History of Narrative and Narration in British Drama – The Cultural Dynamics and Performative Power of Dramatic Storytelling
4 Stories in Conflict and Competition: Alternative Histories, Complementary Tales, and Lies in Early Modern Drama Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	97
5 The Containment of Different Narratives and of Narratives of Difference in Drama: The Renewal and Self-Definition of a ‘Sleeping’ Genre as well as Theatrical Configurations of Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century (Drama) Cultures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	148
6 From Stage to Page, from the Publicly Politic to the Metaphysically Private: Late Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Drama as a Genre in Transformation, Dramatising Diegetic Storytelling and Narrativising (Revolutionary) Change in Society and Conflict in Selves Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	199
7 Expanding the Allowances of Drama by Generic Encounters with Narrative in Victorian and Early-Twentieth-Century Plays: Intersecting Drama and Narrative as Means to Fight against Hypocritical Hegemonies as well as to Perform and Forestall Political Change Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	254
8 From Stories in Drama to the Drama of (Performed) Stories: Late-Twentieth and Early-Twenty-First-Century Dissolutions of Established Generic Traditions and Cultural Histories as Well as the Generation of New, ‘Ex-centric’ Genres and Histories through Narrative Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	304
9 Conclusion: ‘The Contextual Dynamics of Dramatic Storytelling’ and the ‘Performative Power of Narrative in British Plays’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	358
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	379
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	415

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

January 19, 2022

eBook ISBN:

9783110724110

Hardcover published on:

January 31, 2022

Hardcover ISBN:

9783110721379

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Front matter:

14

Main content:

419

Illustrations:

10

Coloured Illustrations:

13

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110724110

eBook ISBN: 9783110724110

Hardcover ISBN: 9783110721379

Keywords for this book

Drama; narrative; British literary history; drama theory

Audience(s) for this book

Scholars of Literary Studies and Theatre Studies, narratologists

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Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com

A Narratology of Drama

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Topics

Table of contents

Bibliographic data