In Response to Sankey’s ‘Zen and the Art of Monologue’

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Response to ‘Zen and the Art of Monologue’ In Sankey’s ‘Zen and the Art of Monologue’ he states ‘ be sure to write your monologue in the first person.’ He says that a monologue is a personal thing and that writing it on the third person isn’t appropriate. I partly agree with this as a monologue does sound more realistic when in the first person, it gives the reader a better insight into the characters thoughts and feelings. However, Sankey also says that ‘A monologue is about you’ which I disagree with as it implies a monologue has to be about the person writing it. A successful monologue does not have to be from the point of view of the writer. Many dramatic monologues are written from the point of view of an imagined character. This allows you to tailor the piece to your audience without worrying about keeping to certain facts. Sankey then goes on to say that a monologue should be ‘about things that have happened’ instead of ‘things that you believe may happen.’ I agree with this point as it is much more interesting to read about what has already happened to a character than what might happen in the future as this is more realistic. In a monologue about what is going to happen in a characters life it is more like speculation and may not be as interesting to the audience. -------------------------------------------- [ 1 ]. Jay Sankey, Zen and the Art of Monologue, (Routledge, 2000), p.30 [ 2 ]. Jay Sankey, Zen and the Art of Monologue, (Routledge, 2000),

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