General Tragedy

How does Aristotle describe tragedy in his Poetics - mimesis (transl Haliwell)

‘A mimesis of as action which is elevated, complete, and of magnitude’

How does Philip Sidney describe english tragedy in comparison to Seneca in his Defence of Poesy 1580 - tragedy as didactic

‘climbing to the height of Seneca’s style, and as full of notable morality, which it doth delightfully teach’

WHat does Aristotle say is the poet’s function in contrast to the historian’s in his Poetics

‘not the poet’s function to relate actual events’

What does Aristotle in his Poetics say that the best tragedies are about

‘only a few families’ - Alcmaeon, Oedipus, Orestes, Meleager, Thyestes, Telephus

What does Herodotus record about Phrynicus’ The Sack of Miletus c.492 BCE

grief of athenians with the audience in tears at depiction of capture of milenus (c. 429 BCE) - Phrynicus was fined 1000 drachmas for being too realistic in his depicton

Vernant - tragedy and reality

1990 - ‘[tragedy] does not reflect that reality but calls it into question’

Samuel Johnson 1765 in preface to his plays of Shakespeare - status of WS

‘may now begin to assume the dignity of an ancient … long outlived his century

Edward Said ‘The Word, The Text, and the Critic’ - what fallacy does he emphasise - impulse to link tragic prsonages to histrical figures, crits idea of text as accurate mirror of the world without regrding the conditions that make it a text

1983 - ‘reduction of a text to its circumstances’

In Plautus’ Amphotruo, what does Mercury claim he can do

‘make it mixed: let it be a tragicomedy’

Taplin - tragedy and its status as a play. endings as a key site to demarcate tragedy and comedy

1996 - ‘tragedy goes out of its way to pre-empt and overwhelm the limiting counter claim that it is only a play, while comedy embraces and exploits this self-subversion’.

Bruhn - generic blending

2016 - ‘blending is an a priori condition in all texts’

Aristotle Poetics - time

‘stay within a single revolution of the sun, or close to it’

What does Aristotle suggest are the 6 parts of tragedy

Plot, Moral character, diction, ideas, spectacle, music

emphasises on action and things being done. difference between action completed in full knowledge, action completed in ignorance, and action nearly commited.

Boyle - renaissance and Senecan pessimism

1997 - ‘at the heart of renaissance and senecan pessimism is the impotence of reason’

Aristotle Poetics - Spectacle and audience’s minds eye

‘spectacle is emotionally potent but falls quite outside the art and is not integral to poetry’ ‘material as much as possible in the mind’s eye’

What does Boyle think about the theatricality of Senecan tragedy

2014 - Senecan tragedies performable

What does David Wiles say about the tragic stage space

2010 - it is a network of zones of power

stagedoor/houshold = threshold

outside world = offstage. other cities = barbarianism.

Altar = divine protection, limits of human agency

stage space = buffer, limits of power

importance of entrances and exits

What are the difference possible positions of the audience

Pluralist - there are as many possible responses as there are audience members, giving ideological power to the individual

Collectivist - audience as unified body - ideological power to the institution as a civic force

Dialectical - theatre reconciles the divided interests of differentt groups, allowing for pluralism and collectivism - all-inclusive but still the interests within an audience remain divided.

What are examples of unruly spectatorship and the attemps to control it

Theophrastus ‘ the disgusting man’ - claps when others stop, hisses at those others enjoy, burps in silence

Cicero 50 BCE - actors hissed and boosed offstage if movement out of time or a syllable too long

Harpocration 2 AD - audience members clicking to drive off stage performers

rod holders as crowd control

EM london = playhouse riots - the playhouses were closed down when they occured, punishing theatres for audience action.

How does Plato describe the working of tragedy in The Republic

works through emotional contagion and amplification - the pleasure of having emotions defined and restrained

What are the various devices that can stimulate affect

Sound - music, cries, silence etc

Vision - mask, costume, scenery

Subject - plot, imagery

Language - verse rhythm, vocabulary

Style - Imagery