Strategies of Drama: The Experience of Form

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The author presents a personal analysis of the way in which experience is created by drama. A variety of plays are discussed and examined as perceptual objects - structures whose designs are entirely determined by the fact that they are meant to be perceived. Brownstein focuses on the distinct aspects of the dramatic art form and on its special powers to orchestrate the imagination and produce a personal encounter in the lives of spectators. In doing so, he provides a practical critical theory of drama which aims to be both sophisticated and accessible. Approaching drama from a phenomenological perspective, the book strives not to interpret the plays themselves, but rather the author's own perceptions and the sources that prompted them. Covering the wide history of Western drama from the Greeks to the present day, he treats in detail a small number of familiar works, offering an extensive theoretical survey of the "perception shift" that infuses even the smallest element of a play, as well as those forces that are expressed through major dramatic strategies. Also addressed are the ways in which a single narrative sequence may serve all dramatic strategies.

Author Bio

OSCAR LEE BROWNSTEIN is the former Chairman of the Playwriting Department at the Yale School of Drama. His numerous articles have appeared in journals such as the Shakespeare Quarterly and the Theatre Journal, and he is the author of the Analytical Sourcebook of Concepts in Dramatic Theory (Greenwood Press, 1981).