Aristotle on Tragedy

What is Aristotle’s theory of mimesis

Tragedy in general is mimesis

Mimesis is:

• The essential features of a thing that are boiled down and made legible

• This is necessary because its impossible to illustrate all the details of reality

• Images therefore have to teach humans the essence of what things are

What does tragedy tell us about human nature?

Tragedy is a typology (classification according to a general type) of human nature

plot vs. Character

The pot is the most important part of tragedy—in order to convey universal truths

Character is de-emphasised—> should be stock figures

Aristotle’s definition of tragedy

tragedy is:

1) the representation of a serious and complete action

2) accomplishing by means of pity and fear

3) the catharsis of such emotions

How is catharsis created?

tragedy requires a reversal of fortune (peripeteia) and the revelation (anagnorisis) of this reversal to create catharsis

P + A = C

The three theories of catharsis

Medical — purging

Ethical —purifying

Cognitive—clarifying

The medical-purgation theory

Catharsis as not an emotion but a process of getting rid of emotion

— unlike other theories of catharsis, which focus on purification and clarification this is a PURGING of fear and pity and ultimately fear of death (like getting a lobotomy)

— this purging theory (and particularly including fear of death) is part of German philosophy of Aristotle

^^^ aristotle refutes this: in his catharsis, the fear of death remains

Freud: his word for pity works differently to the common understanding—it is primarily about identifying with the tragic hero, and therefore feeling sorry for oneself for being able to identify with the tragic hero

The ethical-purifying theory

the middle ground between purging and clarifying

In Nicomachean Ethics: Aristotle makes clear that feeling emotion is only as long as as it is done to the right degree—> this means that in the ethical interpretation tragedy gives space for an audience to release their excess of fear and pity and thus purify themselves

The cognitive-clarifying theory

The emotions remain—you don’t lose them but reconcile them, and make space for this

Milton interprets Aristotle’s conception of catharsis as about tempering pity and fear so that purgation is modified

Aristotle’s definition of catharsis

Aristotle never fully explained catharsis

It is thus fair to say that may have been gesturing towards catharsis working in all three ways

The status of the tragic hero

the tragic hero has to be dramatic enough to fall

They must be aristocracy

Modern tragedians attempt to dispute this in the writing of ‘democratic’ tragedy

The psychology of hamartia

hamartia exists to allow tragedy the psychological knowledge about certain types of people in response to certain situations

Hamartia provides psychological knowledge that acts as a moral pathology (a social or collective abnormality)

2 possible definitions of Hamartia

Just error, without blame: becomes difficult to give antigone a hamartia that isn’t in some way her fault

Error of the individual i.e with blame: difficult to locate where the blame should be for Oedipus