The Hypertext History of Modern Drama

The internet is a medium uniquely suited to portray the history of a genre that is an immense and intricate web of influences. Drama is born of the fusion of literature, music, dance, sculpture, and painting. For this reason, the movements and artists of the theater tend to be hard to pin down to one generic label or artistic method. Samuel Beckett, for example, has been called an absurdist, a surrealist, and a member of the avant garde. William Butler Yeats was influenced by the symbolist movement - but he also wrote realistic and expressionistic plays. By creating a network of terms and ideas rather than a linear taxonomy of playwrights, we hope to allow students of drama to develop a more fluid and complex conception of the nature of "influence" and "movement."

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