British and American Drama

Module 1- Notes

Elements of Drama:

➔ Authorial Intrusion
● A literary technique where an author directly addresses the readers.
● Establishes a relationship between the readers and the author.
● Books which have extensive knowledge tend to have imitations of the same nature. The
books are written in 1st or 3rd person’s perspective, the author’s voice serves as an
intrusion, which is called the authorial intrusion.
● In these stories, the narrator narrates and describes the setting, characters and plot and the
author intrudes to make some comments or observations.

➔ Cacophony
● A blend of unharmonious sounds. The word comes from Greek, meaning ‘bad sound’.
● Literary examples: She sells seashells down by the seashore.
● It is used to add emotional depth to the moment.

➔ Circumlocution
● An unnecessary use of large words to express an idea.
● Also known as ‘talking in circles’ or ‘talking around’.
● Example: Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter referred to as ‘you-know-who’ or
‘he-who-must-not-be-named’.

➔ Conflict
● Involves a struggle between two opposing forces, usually a protagonist and an antagonist.
● Types: Internal and External conflict.

➔ Diction
● Refers to linguistic choices made by a writer to convey an idea or a point of view, in an
effective way.
● The author’s selection of words or vocabulary and the artistic arrangements of these
words is what constitutes the style and establishes the voice of a literary work.

➔ Epilogue
● An epilogue is an optional final chapter of a story, such as in a play or book, and which
may serve a variety of purposes—concluding or bringing closure to events, wrapping up
 loose ends, reporting the eventual fates of characters after the main story, commenting on
the events that have unfolded, and or setting up a sequel.
● It can appear as a speech (especially in a play), a series of scenes, or an essay by the
narrator. The opposite of this is a prologue, which comes at the beginning of a play or
book, and introduces the story.

➔ Epithet
● Epithet is a descriptive literary device that describes a place, a thing, or a person in such a
way that it helps in making its characteristics more prominent than they actually are.
● Also, it is known as a ‘by-name’, or ‘descriptive title’.
● Example: “Death lies on her like an untimely frost. Upon the sweetest flower of all the
field…” (Romeo and Juliet).

➔ Euphemism
● Euphemism is a figure of speech commonly used to replace a word or phrase that is
related to a concept that might make others uncomfortable.
● Refers to figurative language designed to replace phrasing that would otherwise be
considered harsh, impolite, or unpleasant.
● This literary device allows for someone to say what they mean indirectly, without using
literal language, as a way of softening the impact of what is being said.
● Euphemisms are used for certain abstractions such as death, sex, aging, getting fired,
bodily functions, and others.

➔ Euphony
● It can be defined as the use of words and phrases that are distinguished as having a wide
range of noteworthy melody or loveliness in the sounds they create.
● It gives pleasing and soothing effects to the ear due to repeated vowels and smooth
consonants.
● It can be used with other literary devices like alliteration, assonance and rhyme to create
more melodic effects.

➔ Malapropism
● Malapropism means “inappropriate.” It is the use of an incorrect word in place of a
similar-sounding word, which results in a nonsensical and humorous expression.

Literary Terms in Drama:

➔ Flashback
● A flashback is a device used in stories, films, television episodes, etc., that interrupts the
flow of the plot to “show” readers/viewers an event.
➔ Foil
● Foil is a literary device designed to illustrate or reveal information, traits, values, or
motivations of one character through the comparison and contrast of another character.
● A literary foil character serves the purpose of drawing attention to the qualities of another
character, frequently the protagonist.

➔ Foreshadowing
● Foreshadowing is a literary device that writers utilize as a means to indicate or hint to
readers something that is to follow or appear later in a story.
● Foreshadowing, when done properly, is an excellent device in terms of creating suspense
and dramatic tension for readers.

➔ Hubris
● Hubris is a character trait that features excessive pride or inflated self-confidence, leading
a protagonist to disregard a divine warning or violate an important moral law.
● As a literary device, hubris is commonly exhibited by a tragic hero as their tragic flaw, or
hamartia.

➔ Hyperbaton
● Refers to an inversion in the arrangement of common words.
● It can be defined as a rhetorical device in which the writers play with the normal
positions of words, phrases, and clauses in order to create differently arranged sentences,
which still suggest a similar meaning.

➔ Motif
● Motif is an object or idea that repeats itself throughout a literary work.

➔ Nemesis
● Nemesis is a literary device that refers to a situation of poetic justice, where the good
characters are rewarded for their virtues, and the evil characters are punished for their
vices.

➔ Periphrasis
● Periphrasis means ‘talking around’.
● It is a stylistic device that can be defined as the use of excessive and longer words to
convey a meaning which could have been conveyed with a shorter expression, or in a few
words.

➔ Portmanteau
● Portmanteau is a literary device in which two or more words are joined together to coin a
new word, which refers to a single concept.

➔ Prologue
● Prologue means ‘before word’, and is an opening of a story that establishes the setting,
and gives background details.

➔ Setting
● Setting is a literary device that allows the writer of a narrative to establish the time,
location, and environment in which it takes place.
● This is an important element in a story, as the setting indicates to the reader when and
where the action takes place. As a result, the setting of a narrative or story helps the
reader picture clear and relevant details.

➔ Spoonerism
● Used as a form of wit.
● In this device, words are used in such a way that they become the main subject of
conversation for entertainment and amusement.

➔ Stage Direction
● An instruction written into the script of a play, indicating stage actions, movements of
performers, or production requirements.

➔ Syntax
● Syntax is a set of rules in a language. It dictates how words from different parts of speech
are put together in order to convey a complete thought.

➔ Theme
● Theme refers to the central, deeper meaning of a written work.
● Writers typically will convey the theme of their work, and allow the reader to perceive
and interpret it, rather than overtly or directly state the theme.
● As readers infer, reflect, and analyze a literary theme, they develop a greater
understanding of the work itself and can apply this understanding beyond the literary
work as a means of grasping a better sense of the world.
● Theme is often what creates a memorable and significant experience of a literary work
for the reader.

➔ Understatement
● An understatement is a figure of speech employed by writers or speakers to intentionally
make a situation seem less important than it really is.
➔ Verisimilitude
● Verisimilitude is likeness to the truth, such as the resemblance of a fictitious work to a
real event, even if it is a far-fetched one.
● Verisimilitude ensures that even a fantasy must be rooted in reality, which means that
events should be plausible to the extent that readers consider them credible enough to be
able to relate them somehow to their experiences of real life.