Dramatic Form—And: Tracking Down Implications

Abstract

In Chicago during the summer of 1961, I offered part of a paper on “Dramatic Form and Human Motivation.” I began with the theory of classical form (as the arousing and fulfillment of expectations) which I had originally developed in Counter-Statement. Form as so conceived was reduced to three principles: progressive, repetitive, and conventional.“Progressive” form was said to involve the use of situations which led the audience to anticipate or desire certain developments. “Repetitive” form involves the ways in which a work embodies a fixed character or identity, the ways in which a work, however disjunct, manifests some kinds of internal self-consistency. “Conventional” form (or “categorical expectancy”) involves the kinds of expectation which an audience brings to the theatre as an established institution.