Excerpt from Hebbel, Ibsen and the Analytic Exposition A definition of the analytic exposition is by no means so easy to formulate as may be supposed. The action sets in immediately before the crisis the action is nothing but a revelation of the past and a discus sion of its effect on the present; the exposition is dramatized: these and similar statements do indeed apply to the analytic exposition, but not exclusively. The function of an exposition is to put the audience in possession of certain antecedent facts necessary to the understanding of the situation when the play be gins. If there are no antecedent circumstances, that is if the dramatist begins at the very beginning of the entire action, there is no need of an exposition. We see everything occurring before us. This is the usual Shakespearean method. If, however, he selects a later point in the course of the action with which to open, he must let us know what precedes that; he must have an exposition. This may be as formal, as conventional as he pleases; or it may also be highly dramatized. Moreover it may acquaint us, the audi ence, with only a part of the antecedent material, or with the whole of it: that is, we may be told every thing in advance of the persons in the play, and then enjoy seeing them discover what we know; or we may discover a part along with them. Finally, we may be told nothing at all in advance, in which case we be come, as it were, innocent bystanders, gathering ourinformation by bits and shreds, forming our opinion by what we see and hear, along with the persons con cerned and not in advance of them. In other words, we again arrive at a dramatic form that really has no exposition at all in the proper sense of the word. We simply see the play and understand it or not, as best we can. Thus a drama may begin at the very begin ning and have no exposition, or it may set in just before the crisis and have none. In both cases action and exposition coincide. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.