Kovács Ferenc: Olvasópróba előtt (Skenotheke 1. Budapest, 1996)
Felhasznált irodalom
THE ANALYSIS OF THE PLAY In The Maze of Dramaturgy It is dramaturgy that fills an action with life, defining the temporal and causal relationships of events, the protagonists and antagonists, and the trajectory of the plot. In order for a spectator to make sense of all this, he or she needs time and a capacity for understanding. The former is strongly dependent on the latter, as the greater our capacity for making sense (memory, associational ability) of certain phenomena, the less time we need for processing the information which is presented to us. The dramaturgical structure and formal properties of a work constitute a bridge to the spectator. They are a pedagogical method, a way of cognition. The relationship between work and spectator is extremely intricate and can be approached from several vantage points (e.g., psychological, sociological, political, ideological, historical, aesthetic, ethical, etc.). Specific dramaturgical structures appeal to particular groups of spectators who possess knowledge of different types and qualities. Traditional dramaturgy emphasizes plots with a clearcut beginning, middle and end. The plot is driven by a conflict emerging among different entities. The happy or tragic ending depends upon who wins: the good or the bad. These are the rules of the so-called Anglo-Saxon dramaturgy deeply rooted in the tradition of Greek tragedy. If the plot advances on several temporal and spatial planes, the dramatic conclusion never arrives. This is the case for epical-lyrical dramaturgy. In what follows, we will treat the dramatic and the epic as two distinct dramaturgical forms. However, in practice it is very rare that an entire play is only one or the other of these forms. Dramatic and Epic Dramaturgical Forms The relationships that make up reality can be illustrated in the following way-, a mass of innumerable event elements distributed randomly in space (see figure 1). Any attempt to delineate reality in a definitive way is arbitrary. 60
