Date

4-2013

Department

School of Communication and Digital Content

Degree

Master of Arts in Communication (MA)

Chair

David Allison

Primary Subject Area

Theater; Religion, General; Religion, Biblical Studies; Mass Communications

Keywords

Judas Iscariot, Narrative Fidelity, Narrative Paradigm, Narrative Probability, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Walter R. Fisher

Disciplines

Christianity | Communication | Critical and Cultural Studies | Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory | History of Christianity | Religion | Rhetoric and Composition | Theatre and Performance Studies

Abstract

Stephen Adly Guirgis has created an era-melting play, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, which explores the timeless debate between divine mercy and free will. A systematic application of Walter R. Fisher's narrative analysis, through form identification and a functional analysis, determined how Guirgis accomplishes persuasion. This qualitative study focused on Guirgis's narrative, using Walter R. Fisher's narrative paradigm as a framework to answer the research question(s): (1) If Guirgis's ideology and created world in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot are foreign and imagined, how is narrative probability and narrative fidelity achieved?; and, (2) How does Guirgis persuade his audience through narrative probability and narrative fidelity? Research found that Guirgis achieves narrative probability and narrative fidelity because his dramatic action is complete, self-contained, purposeful, varied, engages and maintains the interest of the audience, and is probable. This thesis concluded that persuasion can only be achieved when narrative probability and narrative fidelity are present.

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