Characteristics of Modern Drama
To simply put, the modern drama is the rejection of the already established Elizabethan and Greecian standards. Ibsen is the father of modern drama.
Modern drama introduces the themes of its own. Unlike classical dramas that promoted the themes of fate, it made the role of fate irrelevant.
Modern drama gives a huge chunk of significance to the people of the lower class, working on wages. While the older dramas showed the characters belonging to the class of nobility.
Influences Which Affected Modern Dramatists
Industrialization was a minor factor that propelled the writers' shift from classical dramas to form the modern ones.
First World War proved the most important factor behind the establishment of modern dramas. Common people and writers had never experienced such bloodshed at a mass scale. They started to question the role of politics, economics and religion on their social as well as personal lives. Auch behaviour can be easily traced in the writings of these modern dramatists.
The 3rd influence behind writing modern dramas is considered to be the psychological complex that was introduced by Sigmund Freud. This psychological complex deals with the role of subconscious instinct in making decisions at the conscious level. He argues that Oedipus had married his mother unknowingly but at the subconscious level, he may have shown the desire to marry his mother at sone point. As life has grown from simple to complex, so do the modern dramatists. The influence of subconscious instinct can be easily traced in their modern genius.
Literary Movements of Modern Drama
Realism: In this literary movement, writers wrote about the common-day people but they accepted the role of God and religion in their characters' lives.
Naturalism: Just like Realists, their setting showcased ordinary environments with contemporary whereabouts. But they challenged religion and replaced it with politics and economics. They were in the view of:
Your fate does not punish you.
Our new institutions are new gods.
Surrealism: This literary movement was rin against the first world war. They believed that political and economical instability was not solely responsible for the war. Our subconscious desires were equally behind it. They expressed their views through painting surrealistic objects.
Dadaism: This literary movement came as an aftermath of surrealism but Dadaists expressed themselves through their literary work instead of painting.
Source
Lecture of Sir Hassan Akbar
