Drama refers to plays, which are written to be acted on a stage by people playing the parts of characters. Prose is usually meant to be read privately by an individual (though speeches are almost always written in prose) and is the kind of writing we associate with both fiction and nonfiction books. Think of drama as plays and prose as novels, short stories or essays.
Drama is more traditionally connected to cultures with lower literacy, where people could watch and listen to stories they might not be able to read. Prose is connected to the rise of literacy, as well as the ever-lowering costs of printing. Both being able to read and afford printed matter meant people could go off privately with a book, journal or pamphlet and read and ponder the work in solitude, though prose works were often read aloud as well, both in the home and, in the case of pamphlets, on the street.
Though the division is not sharp, drama is associated with community: the idea is that people go en masse to see a performance. Prose is often tied to the rise of the private individual, reading alone.
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