Dramatic Genres (Critical Survey of Drama, Second Revised Edition)
Overview
The classification of Western dramatic works into genres owes less to playwrights than to critics and theorists. Every age has tried to redefine preexisting genres in terms of its own preoccupations or has tried to invent new genres in order to categorize novel phenomena that do not fit the terminology available. Occasionally playwrights themselves concur in using these labels and even, as in the Renaissance and neoclassical periods, meekly follow the guidelines set down for them by academicians. For the most part, however, whenever drama has thrived, the dramatist’s...
[The entire page is 41406 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
