Codes and conventions of the drama genreBy Esme Roberts
Drama Conventions
• Exhibits real life situations with realistic characters, setting, and stories.
• Portrays journeys of character development • Intense social interaction.• Purpose of a dramatic story line is to move the
audience emotionally.
Drama: Main Points
• Heart of a drama is the conflict• Conflict includes inner/outer realistic struggles
depicting hardships, difficulty and pain• Audience can relate to the characters (preferred
reading- Halls Theory• Structured with climatic events and anti climaxes
to keep the audience emotionally attached and the tension ongoing
• A form of realisation at the end/happy ending
Sub-genres
• Drama can be interlaced with other genres such as comedy, tragedy, etc. It does not have to be complete drama.
Conventions
• Comedy Drama- ‘A Serious Man’ broke the convention of a typical ending where the audience knew what was going to happen to Larry. The film tried something new, that the audience would not predict.
• Titanic brakes the conventions as all does not end happily for the protagonists, but has a rather tragic ending.