SPECIFIC FEATURES OF DRAMA IN THE HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL DIMENSIONS

Abstract

The article deals with the specifics of the formation of drama as a literary genre, varieties of drama, which have been formed in European literature at different stages of development. The theoretical foundations of the drama formulated by Aristotle as well as the modification of the features of the drama during the history of the development of literature are determined. The specifics of the composition of the drama, as well as the features of the dramatic conflict are explored. The composition of the dramatic work reveals the individual style of the artist, the peculiarity of his/her creative manner. The composition of drama serves the embodiment of the ideological and artistic design of the writer, reflects his/her aesthetic concept, artistic and worldview quest. Particular attention is paid to the `Aristotelian` and `nonAristotelian` drama, the transition from the traditional theater to the `new drama` and the further transformations of the dramatic genus. In the era of romanticism the drama gained new signs. The entire composition of the romantic drama was aimed primarily at the disclosure of the internal state of the individual, its conflict with the world, society by itself. Therefore, the inner action becomes basic, it is subject to the external action. Great importance of romance was given to the depiction of the place of action, nature, symbols, linguistic means. In the era of romanticism the drama has undergone a significant influence of lyric poetry, as evidenced, for example, by the work by J. Byron, who developed the genre of the dramatic poem. The development of realism in the XIX century also affected the dramatic kind of literature. The drama became more analytic, it explored the relationship between person and the environment, so the image of the environment came to the fore. Heroes appeared as certain social types. The playwrights faithfully represented the images and the situation noting the typical characteristic of life. Since the end of the XIX century writers were looking for new forms of art, which led to the birth and active development of the ʺnew dramaʺ, which according to B. Shaw, `radically changed its attitude to the problems of ethics and aesthetics.` `New drama` is closer to the present, to the inner world of person. In the old theater was talking about a separate tragedy in life, then in the new one the general tragedy of life and of all mankind. The hero appeared not as a social type, but as a `spiritual symptom of the era,` whose individuality, experience and feeling reflect the general atmosphere of the era. Internal movements of the human soul acquired generalized meaning, became the criterion for assessing the philosophical, social and moral problems of being. The theater turned into a place of ideological discussions and spiritual impulses. The external action gave way to the internal, the conflicts were extremely complicated,an important role was played by the subtext, the means of lyricism. Using the achievements of realism and naturalism, the `new drama` persistently developed the principles of modernism – symbolism, neoromanticism, impressionism, expressionism, surrealism, and so on. G. Ibsen, M. Meerlinck, A. Strindberg, G. Hauptmann, A. Chekhov, M. Meerlinck, B. Shaw, Lesya Ukrainka, V. Vynnychenko, M. Kulish and others were among the origins of the `new drama`. According the development of modernism, the composition of dramatic works is updated at the expense of time and space displacement, the principles of free assembly, the predominance of internal action, methods of lyrising drama, etc. Symbolistic drama, expressive drama, grotesque drama, intellectual drama and so on are the features of the composition. The development of dramatic genres is considered in the context of the formation of literary trends, styles and individualauthor consciousness.