ABSTRACT
Drama can be discussed from a number of different viewpoints: literary, artistic, or technological. It can also be examined simply as a technique of communication, different— in some respects more efficient, in some less so—from other ways in which human beings convey messages to one another. Drama is always action; its action is always that of human beings. In drama the author experiences the world through personality. The element of personality in drama appears in a highly complex form. The exceptional dramatic texts that have achieved over time the status of literature provide powerful evidence of the essential difference between literature and drama as methods of communication. The multilayered dramatic package will produce an emotional impact the elements of which remain largely subliminal. Like the stage and the cinema screen, television deals primarily in images—not only the explicitly dramatic programs broadcast but all of television.
