Wednesday, November 30 ~ Bacchae Begins!

EQ: What is Aristotle's definition of Tragedy?



Journal 32: Aristotle's Tragedy
First a few vocab words...

• Mimesis--"imitation"- Contrary to Plato, Aristotle asserts that the artist does not just copy the shifting appearances of the world, but rather imitates or represents Reality itself, and gives form and meaning to that Reality. In so doing, the artist gives shape to the universal, not the accidental. Poetry, Aristotle says, is "a more philosophical and serious business than history; for poetry speaks more of universals, history of particulars."
• Catharsis--"purification"-tragedy first raises (it does not create) the emotions of pity and fear, then purifies or purges them. Whether Aristotle means to say that this purification takes place only within the action of the play, or whether he thinks that the audience also undergoes a cathartic experience, is still hotly debated. One scholar, Gerald Else, says that tragedy purifies "whatever is 'filthy' or 'polluted' in the pathos, the tragic act" (98). Others say that the play arouses emotions of pity and fear in the spectator and then purifies them (reduces them to beneficent order and proportion) or purges them (expels them from his/her emotional system).
• Tragic Hero - The hero is neither a villain nor a model of perfection but is basically good and decent.
• Hamartia - "mistake" or tragic flaw. The great man falls through--though not entirely because of--some weakness of character, some moral blindness, or error. We should note that the gods also are in some sense responsible for the hero's fall.
• Peripeteia or "reversal" - occurs when a situation seems to developing in one direction, then suddenly "reverses" to another. For example, when Oedipus first hears of the death of Polybus (his supposed father), the news at first seems good, but then is revealed to be disastrous.
• Anagnorisis aka Recognition--"knowing again" or "knowing back" or "knowing throughout" ) about human fate, destiny, and the will of the gods. Aristotle quite nicely terms this sort of recognition "a change from ignorance to awareness of a bond of love or hate." For example, Oedipus kills his father in ignorance and then learns of his true relationship to the King of Thebes.
• Recognition scenes in tragedy are of some horrible event or secret, while those in comedy usually reunite long-lost relatives or friends. A plot with tragic reversals and recognitions best arouses pity and fear.
• Pathos or "suffering": Also translated as "a calamity," the third element of plot is "a destructive or painful act." The English words "sympathy," "empathy," and "apathy" (literally, absence of suffering) all stem from this Greek word.

Now click here and create your own working definition of Aristotle's tragedy.

Today we begin the prep work for Bacchae by Euripides.
HW: Journal 33 ~ Leithart Questions p.341(The Contest of  Fetters and Thyrsus)

•  Read the Leithart intro on pages 335-342 and answer the questions on 341-2.