Critical Categories & Culture: World Drama Deborah Griggs Berlin, May 2015 The main propositions of this paper are 1) that as with all communication codes and frameworks of understanding, critical methodology within the literary and dramatic arts is culture bound and 2) that in the moment where the scope of study is expanded to world literature and world drama, it is important to first investigate the culture-bound characteristics of the critical concepts and strategies to be employed. Although the propositions apply to both literature and drama, the concrete examples used in the paper are limited to drama. Culture-bound concepts Even the most seemingly straightforward critical concepts are steeped in the times and places in which they are conceived. They are further influenced by the traditions from which they see themselves spring. Within the framework of literary scholarship, critical concepts construct grammars that are then applied to works with the aim of revealing their structure and meaning. Yet while critical approaches spring up, develop, and transform in a self-conscious and seemingly visible manner, the culture-bound aspects of core concepts sometimes remain veiled or neglected in theoretical discussion. As a ubiquitous concept applied to everything from schools of thought to artistic styles, dramatic methods, or fictitious characters, realism is a term that under even cursory examination reveals a cultural contingency not always taken adequately into account. Considered as literary movement, for example, realism is often considered as part of a historical progression. An overview of such movements or artistic styles might therefore discuss romanticism as a response to (Western) industrialization and realism as a kind of response to romanticism. For many years, such connections were introduced as a means of providing a kind of narrative framework for these concepts.