American drama has continually been developing since Eugene O'Neill who is considered as the father of the modern American drama. After O'Neill, two great dramatists appeared, T. Williams and A. Miller who are considered along with O'Neill as modernist playwrights. With the appearance of Edward Albee a new kind of playwriting was introduced to the American literature which was rooting from the absurd movement in Europe. Many other dramatists appeared after Albee and wrote postmodern plays. One of the greatest of these playwrights is Sam Shepard, who developed the idea of transformation of character in his plays. The writer of this article studies Sam Shepard and presents a comprehensive coverage of the playwright and his works.

Modern (theoretical) physics seems to be in deep crisis today as many of its core aspects are not empirically well-confirmed. Heated exchanges among physicists on the scientific status of physical theories with little or, at best, a tenuous connection to possible experimental tests is highly visible in the popular scientific literature. Some physicists (e.g., Carroll 2014, 2019; Ijjas et al., 2017) argue that science must discard empirical testability as one of its defining properties and the highly explanatory theories of present-day physics should be exempted from experimental testing, while others (e.g., Ellis & Silk 2014) spot in these arguments (for softening the testability or falsifiability requirement for modern physics) a dangerous tendency to undermine science. The philosopher of science who naturally draws most attention in these current debates is Karl Popper (1902-1994). His views, however, are often misrepresented in these debates. The prime objective of this paper is to explain how a more enlightened perspective on the ongoing debates can be obtained by a careful scrutiny of the Popperian criterion of falsifiability. As a first step in achieving this objective we will analyze the two major (conceptual) failures on which the current controversies rest. Our next step will be examining the controversial string theory to see whether the criteria of falsifiability is a ‘blunt instrument’ for determining its scientific status.

During the past three decades the ‘fragmented writing’ style has developed as a literary breed and has turned into a symbol of the contemporary era and its calamities. Theatrical writing has not been an exception to this, as it has had a lot to offer to the world’s literary and artistic treasury in the form of various novel experiences. That is why, this research has found it inevitable to investigate the roots, methods, structural elements and semantic implications of fragmented writing, as an artistic practice symptomatic of our times.The research asks questions such as: what was the causes of diminishing the old, consistent aesthetics of ‘Aristotle's Rhetoric' and replaced it by fragmented writing. Who are the effective individuals and movements that have led this transition in the theatre realm? What are the specific features and aims of fragmented writing aesthetics, as an alternative to the Aristotelian one?Considering the questions presented above, and despite the lack of much solid theoretical resources on the fragmented writing aesthetics specially in theatre – and certainly in Persian language – this research attempts to provide a structured framework on the definition, evolutional trajectory, influences, opportunities and challenges of fragmented writing method. For this, the research seeks to illustrate the relationship between fragmented writing to its contemporary philosophical trend – Pluralism. Further, the study endeavors to explicate the emergence of the fragmented writing’s historical and social context as an aesthetic style and identify its theoretical framework. Moreover, this study tries to clarify the terminological and implicational difficulties of the concept of the fragmented writing and particularly one of its important and basic arguments namely the differentiation between the "modern fragmented writing' " and the "postmodern fragmented writing". Last, the fragmented writing historical trajectory of evolution within the theatrical sphere is discussed and eventually in the final part of the paper, some of its aesthetic influences, opportunities and challenges are addressed.The research findings demonstrate that a collection of political, social, economic, etc. motives – which have caused the consistent and definite image of self, reality and truth become fragmented and scattered, known as Pluralism in the postmodern era – have provided fertile grounds for the fragmented writing to become the main and dominant form of writing in this period. This type of writing, as shown by this study, is the best translation and carrier of what is generally known as ‘sharing in art’ in contemporary cultural milieus.

The study of drama is one of the most interesting, thought-provoking, and pleasing experiences in the field of English literature, but it seems there are some reasons why it may not look like to be so for some of the students of drama in the context of Iranian universities. It seems, first of all, there are some plays which appear baffling when students read them for the first time; secondly, some of expert university teachers follow their fixed sanctified method of drama teaching when they encounter so dissimilar plays. This paper explores innovative and resourceful teaching methods for teaching of drama in the context of Iranian universities. The purpose of this paper is to provide drama teachers with ideas and suggestions for responding to any classic, modern, and postmodern plays that they might encounter as part of the course at university. The present research paper gains significance as the findings may shed more light on groundbreaking and ingenious teaching methods for teaching of drama in the context of Iranian universities.

During the period between the two wars, although some theatre critics were considering the work of the producer more important than the drama text, a few dramatic writers created some poetical plays which derived all their power and influence from accurate poetical texts.Jean Giraudoux occupied an important place amongst masterpieces and his works brought him universal reputation.The fact that a very large public praised his dramatic works in spite of the different levels of their knowledge and the ambiguity of his ideas and intentions raises an important question: What do we expect from a drama? The question is to know if someone who reads or watches a play has to understand clearly all the author's ideas and intentions.This article attempts to answer this important question as far as possible with an analytical look on Giraudoux's most famous play, Intermezzo and also would consider his ideas and those of the critics who have written about his work.

Classic Aristotlian drama based on essential elements in its connection with the spectators is practically a one way course of action that ultimately aims to entertain and influence viewers. New approaches of interdisciplinary studies on narratives have provided the grounds for the possibility of increasing the role of the audiences and their mutual participation in story making. The emergence of computers into dramatic domains has caused new aspects of narrative models. Dramatic logic of the narrative based on computer factors are pointed out and classified. This classification provides the possibility of creating and generating various narrative models for user-audiences who, as well, are viewers, the intervening agents of narrative softwares. Generally, interactive dramas have been limited in a the sense that the audiece is although considered a vibrant player, he/she can only make decision that have already been decided and set forth in the program. Here, we are propsing a new strategy of taking new directions. The interpretive process for writer/player/domain could pave the way for creativity. As a new kind of virtual dramatic relationship, interactive drama, is the result of an interaction between computer and dramatic disciplines. This interaction itself is the consequence of a modern alliance between traditional audiences and dramatists. In this new process, the audiences are able to aesthetically manipulate the development of a narrative formation and change the actions taken by characters. They can actively alter and modify the directions a story may take. The user of narrative sofwares reestablishes his/her own position during the process as a new key factor. Hence, a new domain of narrative story telling has been establishes in which the dramatists and audiences work within the boundaries of imagination and the probabilities available within the computer algorithms. One of the main characteristics of this interactive drama is that it is an open-ended narrative which can be influenced by the player/audience. The effects of this type of drama may therefore go beyond catharsis through identification with the main character(s). Very close to the idea of the "willing suspension of disbelief' theory, the (active) audience might immerse himself/herself in the work to have a unique and independent experience. Thus becoming a powerful agent who can perform independent actions based on the character's intentions and could in effect transform himself/herself. If we consider the uses of computer drama in conjunction with the possibilities of multimedia in a way that the users, while in a text, would be able to move their characters in desirable environments and, based on their characteristics, can change locations at will and thus redefine their relationships with other users on-line, we can appreciate the strength of the dramatic value of the interactive virtual multimedia potentials. Analyzing the dramatic models by computer logics reveals undiscovered possibilities which could help recon figurate fictional dramatic events. Interactive Drama indicates a dynamic relationship for the virtual aesthetics and also for the interdisciplinary study of arts and technology. These new grounds may provide fresh material for the already established dramatic media and hence their use in the development of material for theatre and film.

This article has been written with the aim of examining and analyzing the mechanisms of narrative structure in modern, post and modern dramas. Since the subject of narrative is primarily concerned with the study of fiction and in the world of drama the main indicator is based on the centrality of the concept of action and the applicability of the play text, the subject of narrative in drama has been a source of theoretical challenges. . so, in this article, with the analytical-comparative method, postmodernism in drama has been studied from the perspective of postmodern narratology, and at the same time, the question of whether postmodern narratology exists or not has been analyzed and examined. In fact, the main findings of this article in an analytical process address the challenges of justifying postmodern theory and show that classical and modern narrative structures are still the mainstay of drama writing trends in the world, although this article focuses on important types of drama narrative structures. However, the findings of the article show that, even with the expansion of the concept of post-dramatic theater and counter-textual and visual genres, dramatization based on linear and vertical narratives is still one of the narrative structures in the world of dramatic literature and understanding the mechanisms beyond literature. Theatrical requires the analysis of narrative methods in drama and its obvious differences with fiction.

The author attempts to view the Greek tragedy as a literal- dramatic genre and a kind of work which its creation prepared during particular social-political conditions in Athens 5th century B. C. Tragedy as one of the Greek dramatic genres had importance more than merely a dramatic performance. This was exactly due to the Athenian democracy which governing manner, but rather to its cultural aspect. So, the article examines the Athenian democracy as a cultural phenomenon which differs from democracy as a form of government.

One of the most important. aspects of drama and definitely drama translation is that it should be performable. In order to preserve the perform ability, the communicative function of linguistic forms should be recognized and conveyed by the translator.As noticed by some translation scholars (e.g. Snell-Hornby [1988] and Hatim [1998]), speech acts have a vital role in this process. Translators may employ different strategies to overcome difficulties in translating speech acts.Knowledge of difficulties of drama translation, speech acts (especially their different linguistic forms in different languages) and the different strategies of translating speech acts can help translators fulfill their duty as communicators.Studying speech acts as linguistic tools which can contribute to the production of better translations and recognition of the strategies adopted by translators in treating speech acts may pave the way for further researches on this neglected genre and may contribute to producing more adequate translations. This research, which was based on parallel and a comparable corpora, intended to present a classification of the linguistic forms representing the most Frequently-used speech acts in Persian dramas by analyzing randomly-selected pages of authentic Persian.