Okuzeka
Literature vocabulary · Drama and Theatre

Drama

Meaning in literature, with examples

/ˈdrɑːmə/nounCore term

In literature, drama means: Literature written to be performed by actors on a stage, telling a story through dialogue and action; also a single serious play.

In Turkish: tiyatro, dram, oyun yazını

How it is used

One of the three main genres, with poetry and prose fiction. Universities offer courses in modern drama or Elizabethan drama; critics speak of Greek drama or a historical drama. 'Dramatic' describes anything related to drama or anything sudden and striking.

Example sentences

  1. This module covers European drama from the Greeks to Ibsen and Chekhov.

  2. Unlike a novel, a drama has no narrator to explain what the characters think.

Common collocations

  • modern drama
  • Greek drama
  • historical drama
  • drama school
  • study drama
  • playA piece of writing for the theatre, made up of dialogue and stage directions, that actors perform in front of an audience.
  • playwrightA person who writes plays for the theatre, and sometimes for radio or television, creating the dialogue and stage directions that actors perform.
  • tragedyA serious play or story in which the main character suffers and is usually destroyed, often because of a personal flaw or a fatal mistake.
  • comedyA play or story meant to amuse, usually built on misunderstandings and humor and ending happily, often with reunions or marriages.
  • dialogueThe words that characters speak to each other in a story, play or film; in prose it is usually shown in quotation marks.

More terms: Drama and Theatre

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