Functional features of the introductory stage direction in drama

Abstract

Stage direction’s poetic and its correlation with the exchange part of the text are excited a great interest. This question is observed on the material of playwrights’ works from different countries and historical epochs. This problem is observed by well-known linguists and literary critics such as B. Golubovsky, S. Krzhizhanovsky, N. Nikolina, N. Ischuk-Fadeeva, M. Sulyma, S. Khorob, A. Zorin, A. Gabdullina, etc.

The article deals with the problems of the stage directions’s classification according to their functions in the dramatic works. The aim of the article is to study the spectrum of the most debatable problems of the terminological definition of the introductory stage direction, its functions, places and conceptual corpus in the general structure of the dramatic text.

For further literary studies, the typological classification of the stage direction as a structural element of a dramatic work should be investigated. Works of Ukrainian scientist have not studied the wide spectrum of the stage direction’s problems and its relations with the lines included compositional arrangement in the text of the dramatic work. In our opinion, the stage directions can be divided into the introductory stage directions, intraclassical stage directions, final stage directions, intercostal stage directions. Its main function is preliminary acquaintance of the reader with the temporal and spatial circumstance of the reproduced action’s plot.

The author focused his attention on the issues of introductory stage direction’s semantic peculiarities on the material of national and foreign dramatic texts. The most special works of national and foreign scientists about this problem are analyzed. Varieties of the introductory stage direction and it’s place in the general structure of dramatic text are explored.

In general, the problem of correlation between the introductory stage direction and the author’s dramatic text, its stage performance by the theatrical director is still opened and will be required further research.