ORIGIN
OF EXPRESSIONIST DRAMA:
Expressionism was a movement in drama and
theatre, principally developed in Germany in the early decades of the 20th
century and was popularized in the United States, Spain, China, the U.K., and
all around the world. This genre was a reaction against Realism and Naturalism
that existed in the 19th century literature.
August Strindberg and Frank Wedekind were
notable forerunners of Expressionist drama, but the first full-fledged
Expressionist play was Reinhard Johannes Sorge's‘Der Bettler’ (“The Beggar”),
which was written in 1912 but not performed until 1917.
DEFINITION
OF EXPRESSIONIST DRAMA:
“Expressionist drama is a genre
in which inner life or psyche of the character is expressed. It is forceful and
violent, and mostly expressed distressed emotions.”
FEATURES
OF EXPRESSIONIST DRAMA:
1. Dissatisfaction, confusion and isolation are
the major themes.
2. The characters in Expressionist drama are
often impersonal or nameless with masks on their faces.
3. No concern with the everyday life and its
realities.
4. Subjective and arbitrary depiction of life.
5. Portrayal of characters with unrealistic
conflicts.
6. No well-knit plot and violation of the unities
of time place and action.
7. Diction is fragmented and the grammar is often
violated and sentences are distorted.
8. Use of sudden lyrical outbursts and speech
became a cry.
9. Unusual setting in which the walls of houses
might lean at sharp angles,
threatening to crush the protagonist; windows
might light up like eyes spying on the secret and
intimate; trees might take on the shape of the skeleton
signifying Death.
EXAMPLES OF EXPRESSIONIST DRAMA:
1. 'Murderer, the Hope of Women’(1909) by Oskar
Kokoschka, was the first fully expressionist drama.
2. Eugene O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones’ published
in 1921.
3. ‘The Adding Machine’(1923) by Elmer Rice.
4. ‘Bury the Dead’ (1936) by an American
dramatist Irvin Shaw.
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