Drama is a specific kind of literature having some similarity with a narrative as well as several particular features.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 691.

NOTES

1. that's the way the cookie crumbles – that's the way things turn out; that's life.

2. the john (US colloq.) – lavatory

3. buddy (US colloq.) – brother, pal

4. the guinea pig (fig.) – person used as test-case in medical or sociological experiments and research.

5. beaverboard –type of chipwood board ussed for making partitions.

6. a coloured queen (joc., sl.) – an effeminate Negro.

7. That particular vaudeville act is playing the closed circuit now (joc.) – that couple of music-hall actors does not travel any more.

8. turn – here: tour, trip.

9. a Mr. Barleycorn (US sl.) – a bottle of jin; a barley corn is a grain, or corn, of barley; John Barleycorn is a humorous personification of barley as the sourse of liquor.

10. part with the ghost – die, pass away.

11. stiff (sl.) – corpse.

12. plumb(fig.) – investigate, inquire about.

13. he wasn't half-assed (sl.) – he was far from being stupid.

14. for his scrape with the never-mind – after his narrow escape from death.

15. check bleeding – be on the look-out for any signs of external bleeding as this is often a sign of cancer. “Check bleeding!” – this is a warning often found in newspapers and on placards in the USA. Here: Jerry hints upon going insane.

16. sludge over (colloq.) – go (shuffle) through the mud (dust).

Similarity: both drama and narrative are based upon conflict expressed through the system of personages and the plot.

Difference: narrative represents the events as if they have been completed; drama represents them as happening at the moment in front of the audience. Thus the order of events in drama is always chronological. The action develops in a more dynamic way, the events are more concentrated. The behaviour of characters is more affected and the characters themselves are drawn more distinctively. The main way of characterization is through the actions and speech. Characters' speech constitutes the main text of a play. In a play there is almost no author's speech except for remarks. A play is usually divided into acts which are in turn divided into scenes.