An overview of the Poetics, written by Aristotle.

1. The Text:
Learning Objectives
• Read a play analytically.
• Define Aristotle's six elements—plot, character, thought (or
theme), diction (or language), music, and spectacle—and
understand how these are used in a play.
• Define genre as well as the types of genres in theatre:
tragedy, comedy, melodrama, and musical theatre.
• Explain the characteristics and historical development of
the different genres in theatre.

2. The Text
Key Concepts
• A text refers not only to the written word, but also to anything that can be read,
analyzed, interpreted, and critiqued.
• A play is merely an outline for a more complex production; reading and seeing a
play are two very different experiences.
• Close analysis of a play text is an important part of understanding theatre.
• Analysis of a play involves examining plot, character, theme, language, and
sometimes music and suggested visual elements.
• Although the most common structure for Western drama has been the climactic,
or well-made play structure, other possibilities include episodic and postmodern,
among others.
• Plays may be written in a variety of genres, such as tragedy, comedy, or
melodrama, or may be a combination of these and others.

3. The Text
• Not merely the written word, anything that
can be…
– Read
– Analyzed
– Interpreted
– Critiqued

5. Types of Text:
Theatrical Design

7. The Sopranos

9. The Text:
Scripts
(Plays, screenplays, television scripts)
• Always incomplete when in written form
– A “two-dimensional text”
• Meant to be performed
– Translated by design, directing, acting into a
“three-dimensional text”
• One part of a larger process of production

10. The Text:
Reading and Analyzing a Play
• Seeing a play and reading a script require
different approaches
• Reading a script is a relatively new experience
• Prior to the printing press, plays were actively
learned through rehearsal and repetition
– Shakespeare’s players only had sides, small
portions of the larger script entailing their lines

11. The Text:
Reading and Analyzing a Play
• Plays are artifacts, items made by human
beings with cultural or historical value
• Theatre historians and critics tend to place
greater value on plays that have printed texts
– What are the problems inherent in this approach?
– How does performance studies broaden this
approach?

12. The Text:
Reading and Analyzing a Play
• Read the text in one sitting
• Reflect upon the title: what clues, images,
words of object inform your reading of the
play?
• Read the cast of characters
• Read the stage directions
• Remember: play is action, not words
• Remember: plays achieve full meaning
through production

13. The Text:
Aristotle’s Poetics
• 384 BC – 322 BC
• Greek philosopher
• Pretty much the smartest guy who ever lived.
– Made enormous and lasting advances in
philosophy, literary theory, dramatic theory,
medicine, science, politics, ethics, government.

14. The Text:
Aristotle’s Poetics
• NOT a complete text – big parts are likely
missing (thoughts on comedy, for instance)
• Earliest surviving work of dramatic theory;
the basis for all criticism of Western theatre.
• Earliest surviving work of literary criticism.

15. The Text:
Aristotle’s Unities
• Action
– A whole and complete action, from beginning to
end
• Place
– Occurring in one place, with no scenery changes
• Time
– Occurring over no more than twenty-four hours

16. The Text:
Six Elements of Drama
• Mythos – plot
• Ethos – character
• Dianoia – theme/thought/reasoning
• Lexis – diction/speech
• Melos – music
• Opsis - spectacle

17. The Text:
Plot (Mythos)
• “Whole, complete, and of a certain magnitude”
• Aristotle argued for the supremacy of the linear
(or climactic) plot structure
– Exposition
– Point of attack
– Inciting Incident
– Complication
– Discoveries
– Reversals
– Climax
– Resolution

19. The Text:
Episodic and Postmodern Structures
Episodic structure: a favorite of TV shows
An example of postmodern structure: non-linear

20. The Text:
Character (Ethos)
• Aristotle - consistent
• Four main types of character info (or
characterization)
– Physical/biological
– Social
– Psychological
– Moral/Ethical

21. The Text:
Character
• Information is conveyed in four ways:
– Description (stage direction)
– What the character says
– What other characters say
– What actions the character takes
Nora and Torvald, A Doll’s House

22. The Text:
Thought/Theme (Dianoia)
• Intellectual issues expressed by, or explored
in, the play…
– Questions asked
– Topics explored
– Meanings raised
Above, All My Sons. Below, Waiting for Godot

23. The Text:
Thought/Theme (Dianoia)
• Expressed directly or indirectly through:
– The title
– Dialogue
– Epigram
– Allusion
– Monologues/soliloquies
– Imagery
– Prologue/Epilogue
– Character
– Moment of climax

24. The Text:
Thought/Theme (Dianoia)

25. The Text:
Diction/Speech (Lexis)
• The words in the play, and the self-conscious
arrangement of the words. Consider…
– how does the language help to reveal character?
Theme? Plot?
– What is the rhythm of the speech and how does
the playwright vary it from character to character?

26. Fat Pig – Neil LaBute
TOM:
Huh. (Beat.) And is that…is it all right to talk about…I
dunno, your weight and everything, or should I…?
HELEN:
No, go ahead. It’s not a shame thing for me. Not any
more.
TOM:
“Anymore”?
HELEN:
Well…it’s all shame when you’re younger, isn’t it? You
hate how you look or sound or, you know, all that stuff
that we go through. As kinds. But I’m pretty all right with
who I am now. The trick is getting other people to be okay
with it!
TOM:
Right. And, so…have you always been, like…you know?
HELEN:
No. What?
TOM:
Ummm, big…boned, or whatever.
Helen laughs out loud at this one. Another beauty, which
makes Tom giggle. She takes his hand this time.
HELEN:
That was kind of precious. One of my favorites, actually.
TOM:
What?
HELEN:
“Big-boned.” My mom used to throw that one around,
too.
TOM:
Well…I’m just trying to be…
HELEN:
Don’t. Not for me. I just want you to be truhful, all right?
Seriously.

27. The Text:
Music (Melos) and Spectacle (Opsis)
• Music was a central part of Greek theatre
(odes)
– Most theorists agree this category was related to
Speech, as well, in terms of rhythm, pace, and
“musicality” of language.
• Spectacle are the visual elements needed by a play
• Costumes, setting, lighting, etc.