The use of 'drama' in a more narrow sense to designate a specific type of play dates from the modern era. In English (as was the analogous case in many other European languages), the word play or game (translating the Anglo-Saxon pleġan or Latin ludus) was the standard term for dramas until William Shakespeare's time-just as its creator was a play-maker rather than a dramatist and the building was a play-house rather than a theatre. The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy. The term 'drama' comes from a Greek word meaning 'deed' or ' act' ( Classical Greek: δρᾶμα, drâma), which is derived from 'I do' ( Classical Greek: δράω, dráō). 335 BC)-the earliest work of dramatic theory. Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyrical modes ever since Aristotle's Poetics ( c. For other uses, see Drama (disambiguation).ĭepiction of a scene from Shakespeare's play Richard III Literatureĭrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.
For the film genre, see Drama (film and television).
