Theatrical Terminology and Dramatic Theory
Dramatic theory and terminology questions test precision. You are expected to use Aristotelian terms correctly, distinguish text from performance, and apply semiotic or genre concepts to a concrete example rather than recite definitions.
Aristotelian and classical terms
- The six elements: mythos (plot), ethos (character), dianoia (thought), lexis (diction), melopoiia (song) and opsis (spectacle).
- Mimesis is representation; catharsis is the purgation or clarification of pity and fear; hamartia is an error, not a 'fatal flaw'; peripeteia is reversal; anagnorisis is recognition.
- Plato's Republic 3 distinguishes diegesis (narrative report) from mimesis (direct impersonation); dramatic poetry is mimetic, epic is mixed.
Genre and convention
- Tragedy, comedy and tragicomedy are historical genres, not fixed essences. The unities, verisimilitude and decorum are neoclassical norms, not Aristotelian laws.
- Dramatic irony depends on unequal knowledge between audience and character. The fourth wall is a realist convention, not a universal of theatre.
Semiotics and performance
- The Prague School treats theatre as a system of signs: actor, costume, gesture, space, light and sound. Peirce's icon/index/symbol distinction can classify scenic signs.
- The dramatic text is not the performance text; stage directions are incomplete instructions actualized in production.
- Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt, Shklovsky's defamiliarization and Austin's performatives are often confused; keep their domains separate.
Worked example
Apply the six elements to the tower scene of La vida es sueño. Mythos: Segismundo's discovery that Basilio has tested him. Ethos: the prince's violent instability and Clotaldo's divided loyalty. Dianoia: free will versus astrological determinism. Lexis: conceptista antithesis and rhetorical questions. Melopoiia: the varied verse forms of the comedia. Opsis: the tower, chains, light and costume. The exercise shows that 'plot' is not 'theme': mythos is the arrangement of actions, while dianoia is the argument those actions carry.
Traps that cost marks
- Defining catharsis as any emotional relief.
- Defining hamartia as a fatal flaw.
- Using mythos for theme or message.
- Using diegesis for plot summary.
- Treating the dramatic text and the performance as identical.