Drama (literary kind)

Drama as a literary kind consists of works intended for stage embodiment, in which reality appears through the action and speech of characters, without the extended discourse of a narrator. The word derives from the Greek drama — action. Its principal means are dialogue and monologue, while authorial presence is reduced to stage directions. Drama combines features of the epic (eventfulness) and the lyric (emotional intensity) but exists in the present tense of stage action. Its main genres are tragedy, comedy, drama proper, tragicomedy, melodrama, and vaudeville. European drama arose in ancient Athens (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides) and passed through Shakespeare and Molière. In the Ukrainian tradition it was developed by Ivan Kotliarevsky (Natalka Poltavka), Ivan Karpenko-Kary, Lesia Ukrainka (The Forest Song), and Mykola Kulish (Myna Mazailo).