The UVic Writer's Guide
Drama
Drama is literature written either for theatre performance or
in a similar style intended for reading ("closet drama"). Examples
of closet drama are works of the Roman tragedian Seneca, Milton's
Samson Agonistes (1671), and Byron's Manfred (1817). In poetic drama, the common form of meter is blank verse, the major exception being the heroic dramas of the Restoration
Period, which were written in heroic couplets. Although the terms tragedy, comedy, and tragicomedy are traditionally applied to drama alone, the same forms appear
in poetic and prose narratives. For instance, Homer's epics the
Iliad and the Odyssey are respectively tragic and comic in structure.
Literary Terms (By Category)
Literary Terms (Alphabetized)
Table of Contents
Start Over
Index
Copyright, The Department of English, University of Victoria,
1995
This page updated April 11, 1995