Drama is a genre of narrative fiction (although initially a genre of poetry) and specifically the mode of fiction most commonly represented by performances, whether a theater play or on radio, television or movie. The earliest work of dramatic theory was Aristotle’s Poetics.
A definition of literary drama states ‘a composition in prose or verse presenting in dialogue or pantomime a story involving conflict or contrast of character, especially one intended to be acted on the stage; a play. 2. the branch of literature having such compositions as its subject; dramatic art or representation’.
This genre can be qualified by the many sub-genres: legal drama, domestic drama, comedy-drama, political drama or historical period drama etc. Each of these represents a specific setting or subject matter.
Wiki list:
- Crime drama and legal drama: character development based on themes involving criminals, law enforcement and the legal system.
- Historical drama (epic) (including war drama): films that focus on dramatic events in history.
- Horror drama: a film that focuses on imperiled characters dealing with realistic emotional struggles, often involving dysfunctional family relations, in a horror setting. The film’s horror elements often serve as a backdrop to an unraveling dramatic plot.
- Docudrama: the difference between a docudrama and a documentary is that in a documentary it uses real people to describe history or current events; in a docudrama it uses professionally trained actors to play the roles in the current event, that is “dramatized” a bit. Not to be confused with docufiction.
- Psychodrama: an action method, often used as a psychotherapy.
- Comedy-drama: film in which there is an equal, or nearly equal, balance of humour and serious content.
- Melodrama:a sub-type of drama films that uses plots that appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience. Melodramatic plots often deal with “crises of human emotion, failed romance or friendship, strained familial situations, tragedy, illness, neuroses, or emotional and physical hardship”. Film critics sometimes use the term “pejoratively to connote an unrealistic, pathos-filled, camp tale of romance or domestic situations with stereotypical characters (often including a central female character) that would directly appeal to feminine audiences”. Also called “women’s movies”, “weepies”, tearjerkers, or “chick flicks”. If they are targeted to a male audience, then they are called “guy cry” films.
- Romantic drama: a sub-type of dramatic film which dwells on the elements of romantic love.
What ‘drama’ genre do your novels fit into?
Which of your novels would you most want to become a movie?
For me I think The Twesome Loop – I would concentrate on the four main characters for the movie though.
Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers 