Monday, 25 November 2013

Aristotle's Poetics 4th century BC,

Written in the 4th century BC Aristotle's Poetics is perhaps the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory. His book give us an insightful account of the theory of Greek tragedy. It seeks to explain how the elements of plot, character and spectacle all combine to produce feelings of shame and fear in us, and yet paradoxically pleasure (kalon) seems to derive from this apparently painful process. It presents the essential concepts of mimesis ('imitation'), hamartia ('fault') and catharsis ('purification'), all of which have been of serious concern to the theatre and dramtists ever since. It looks at why mythological heroes, although idealized figures of imagination, are still true to reality, all of which Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides brought to life on the stage. He explains how the best and most effective plays are ones based on complication and resolution, recognition ('anagnorisis') and reversal.

Chapter 6 contains Aristotle's famous definition of Tragedy:

Tragedy is a literary imitation of a sequence of actions, a sequence that is serious, complete in itself, and large in scope; its language is rendered pleasant sometimes by metrical means and sometimes by the addition of music; it is dramatic and not narrative; and by pity and fear brings about a katharsis of those emotions.

In this chapter Aristotle lists the components of Tragedy: plot, characterisation, diction, sentiment and arguments expressed in the dialogue, visual effects and music. Emphatically Aristotle says that the most important of these is plot.

Essentially Aristotle was a self-taught observational biologist. He saw living things evolving in an organic sense, not in a Darwinian sense that we might understand today, but as how embryos grow and develop from  an undifferentiated form, later called the Science of Epigenesis  In this sense Aristotle saw the world and things in it as a biological universe This type of thinking pervades all of his philosophy.


Aristotle's Dionysian Matrix - Eric Csapo





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What are the three rules of Greek tragedy?
The three unities are:
unity of action: a tragedy should have one principal action.
unity of time: the action in a tragedy should occur over a period of no more than 24 hours.
unity of place: a tragedy should exist in a single physical location.

Aristotle defined three key elements which make a tragedy: harmartia, anagnorisis, and peripeteia. Hamartia is a hero's tragic flaw; the aspect of the character which ultimately leads to their downfall.
What are the five 5 main structural features of Greek tragedy?

Aristotle names the basic parts as Prologos, Parodos, Epeisodion, Stasimon, and Exodos. Aristotle mentions another, optional, element—the Kommos, an antiphonal lament delivered by the chorus in the orchestra and actors on the stage.
What are the six main elements of a Greek tragedy? According to Aristotle, tragedy has six main elements, including plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and song.

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Jeffrey Rusten
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