In this week’s class I learn a new term called “Implicature”. It is the term used to refer to utterances that have underlying or intended meaning. For example, if your roommate keeps on asking you why you did not go back for the weekend then he might have the thought of wanting you to leave! According to Wikipedia, Implicature is a technical term in the linguistic branch of pragmatics coined by Paul Grice. It describes the relationship between two statements where the truth of one suggests the truth of the other, but—distinguishing implicature from entailment—does not require it.
Through the examples given in the class, we can see that the mother is trying to ask the son not to leave her but she did not say it directly. Instead she gives all shorts of excuses to the son, hoping that he will not leave her. In my opinion, the used of implicature in drama may make the performance more interesting because it attracts the audience attention as for it will be rather boring if the actors just say out what they intend to.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Different views on culture...
During the fifth week of lecture, while we were doing the exercises in Now Read On from page 109 to 112, I found out that both the drama share a common theme. Both the drama discusses on how people from different generations view cultural issue. It is interesting to know that how people from different background perceive the importance of practicing culture. Take AMRITLAL and JAIRAJ for instance, both of them have their own perception in preserving their culture. In the second drama, Mak Su a Makyong dancer represents the older generation of the Kelantanese society, who is in contrast with the younger generations whereby they prohibited the Makyong performance as it is believed to be against the religious believe. Even so people from different parts of the country also differ in their views towards cultural practices.
History of Theater
After being introduced the History of Theater, I found it interesting that eventually theater was a performance of the ancient Greece, which was meant to develop religious rites in honor of the Gods or to mark the coming of spring. And how it has develop from a religious rites to a Modern Theater where the stage were beautifully decorated and illuminated by candles, to enable the play to be perform at night. Besides that I also come to know that there are two main categories in drama. The first category is tragedy, which it is about human fallibility and reversal of fortune. The character in a tragedy play will experience falling from a high position such as from rich to poor or from a royalty to a commoner, and it is always a result of the characters own doing. On the other hand, a comedy treats themes and characters with humor and typically has a happy ending. Unlike tragedy comedy focuses on the public persona, the protagonist as a social being.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Short Performance...
The things that I will consider for my short performance are as follow,
1. The amount of character
2. Language used
3. Intonations, stressing, and pauses
4. Settings
The reason is, in a short play we need to determine the right amount of character in a short performance. As too many character is not necessary and may mess up the performance as well. Besides that, the language must be appropriate so that the audience can easily understand he message of the performance without much difficulty. In addition, the performers need to be very aware of the intonations, stressing, and pauses that they use, because it is important for the audience to perceive the message correctly. Above all, the setting also plays a major role as it may tune the audience to the appropriate mood during the performance and this will help them to appreciate more.
1. The amount of character
2. Language used
3. Intonations, stressing, and pauses
4. Settings
The reason is, in a short play we need to determine the right amount of character in a short performance. As too many character is not necessary and may mess up the performance as well. Besides that, the language must be appropriate so that the audience can easily understand he message of the performance without much difficulty. In addition, the performers need to be very aware of the intonations, stressing, and pauses that they use, because it is important for the audience to perceive the message correctly. Above all, the setting also plays a major role as it may tune the audience to the appropriate mood during the performance and this will help them to appreciate more.
Different Views on Life
In my opinion, both the poem Ages of man by William Butler Yeats and Shakespeare’s As You Like It, and the riddle in Oedipus Rex share a common theme which all three discuss about the different stages of human life beginning with a new born baby until the person’s death. In As You Like It, Shakespeare categorize the different phase of human life in seven stages, beginning with the Infant, followed by Childhood, Lover, Soldier, Justice, Old Age and finally Death. However Yeats describes humans only undergo four stages in life, which begins with the Infant, followed by Teenager, Adult and ends with Old Age. On the other hand, in Oedipus’s riddle human life is only being portrayed as three stages. As a baby he crawls on fours, then as a man he walks erect, then as an old man he uses cane.
Although both the poet Shakespeare and Yeats are discussing about life but their view on life are totally different from each other. For instance, Shakespeare view life as a process of learning and self development where during infancy men are dependent on those surrounding him and needs to be constantly attended to. Later in his childhood when he started schooling, he will feel uncomfortable and unwilling to leave his home to attend to school. Soon he will experience the sweetness and bitterness of love as teenagers do. Eventually as a young adult, one will seek recognition by putting others priority before his. After experiencing all the experience of life, he has acquired wisdom along with social status and wealth. He then become concern about his physical appearance and begin enjoy life. Next every human cannot escape old age including you and me. Human begins to decade mentally and physically along with the mocking from the people around you. Lastly, it is a certainty in life where every birth will end up with death. No matter who you are, still you will become disable and need the attention and care from the people around you before you pass away.
On the other hand, Yeats views life as a struggle and transforming process. As an infant we struggle to walk and begin to follow his desire when he is entering adulthood where values will be left behind. Later as an adult, one will be wiser and no longer blinded by desires. Lastly, one will struggle against the nature by avoiding death but in the end he will still die.
Then again, in the riddle from the play Oedipus Rex, there are only three stages involve. All of us agree that as a baby one will crawls on all fours, then as a grown-up he walks upright, then as he grows older he will uses a cane to walk.
In a nut shell, I think that Shakespeare’s views are more accurate due to the fact that to me life is a learning process. Furthermore, it gives more details in the different stages of human life compared to the other two that provides very general description.
Although both the poet Shakespeare and Yeats are discussing about life but their view on life are totally different from each other. For instance, Shakespeare view life as a process of learning and self development where during infancy men are dependent on those surrounding him and needs to be constantly attended to. Later in his childhood when he started schooling, he will feel uncomfortable and unwilling to leave his home to attend to school. Soon he will experience the sweetness and bitterness of love as teenagers do. Eventually as a young adult, one will seek recognition by putting others priority before his. After experiencing all the experience of life, he has acquired wisdom along with social status and wealth. He then become concern about his physical appearance and begin enjoy life. Next every human cannot escape old age including you and me. Human begins to decade mentally and physically along with the mocking from the people around you. Lastly, it is a certainty in life where every birth will end up with death. No matter who you are, still you will become disable and need the attention and care from the people around you before you pass away.
On the other hand, Yeats views life as a struggle and transforming process. As an infant we struggle to walk and begin to follow his desire when he is entering adulthood where values will be left behind. Later as an adult, one will be wiser and no longer blinded by desires. Lastly, one will struggle against the nature by avoiding death but in the end he will still die.
Then again, in the riddle from the play Oedipus Rex, there are only three stages involve. All of us agree that as a baby one will crawls on all fours, then as a grown-up he walks upright, then as he grows older he will uses a cane to walk.
In a nut shell, I think that Shakespeare’s views are more accurate due to the fact that to me life is a learning process. Furthermore, it gives more details in the different stages of human life compared to the other two that provides very general description.
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