Film Dramaturgy: A Practice and a Tool for the Researcher

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter gives an overview of dramaturgy as practice and discipline. Dramaturgy has its origins in Antiquity and established itself as a theoretical and analytical approach to understand and support narrative-performative arts in the eighteenth century. After comparing the most influential roots and tradition, from its European origins to its equivalents in India and in the Arabic world, as well as considering interpretations and receptions of Aristotle’s Poetics, the chapter looks at key influential figures such as G. E. Lessing, Max Reinhardt, Max Herrmann and Bertolt Brecht. It discusses dramaturgy as a subject for higher education and its correspondence to professional practice. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of dramaturgy for the screenwriting process and, consequently, how dramaturgy can support academic analyses of time-based and narrative-performative artworks.