CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS DRAMA THEORY? 2
1.1 The case of Oedipus—and the rest of us 2
1.1.1 Does drama apply to life? 2
1.2 Drama theory, game theory and choice within a fixed frame (‘instrumental rationality’) 3
1.2.1 Rational choice theory as the starting point for drama theory. 4
1.3 Drama theory and ethics 7
1.3.1 Differing moralities 8
1.3.2 Humour and irony 8
1.3.3 What kind of ethics? 9
1.4 Other uses of the drama metaphor; free will and consciousness 10
1.4.1 The author and the audience 12
1.5 Drama theory in relation to other subjects 13
1.5.1 Rationalism v. irrationalism 15

« …Oedipus has learnt that the queen his wife, with whom he had four children, is his
mother. He married her after he had unknowingly killed his father. He goes to the
royal bedroom. He finds her hanging from a noose; she has killed herself. He cuts her
down, takes two brooches from her dress and stabs his eyes, making himself blind.
This is Sophocles’ drama Oedipus Rex, written 2.4 millenia ago.
How can we explain Oedipus’ choices? I mean to explain them using drama theory – a
set of ideas that applies to psychology, personal relations, politics, business and war,
as well as literature. It explains unreason and emotion as well as rational behaviour,
and unconscious as well as conscious urges. It’s both descriptive – explaining how we
choose – and prescriptive, showing how we should choose, both for our own ends and
others’. It is a fairly new theory -- two books have appeared on it so far, plus a number
of papers.1 In this book I will discuss and use methods that make drama-theoretic
analysis stronger and simpler…»

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