22. Features of tragedy. Tragic vision
Tragedy
• Tragedy is the oldest form of drama.
• It raises significant issues about the nature of human existence or human relationships.
Aristotle’s definition
• Aristotle defined tragedy as ‘imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself, with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions’.
• Human will and human action come in conflict with a higher power.
• This conflict and the final overthrow of the individual make up a tragic drama.
• Tragedy has a solemn theme and plot.
• In general, tragedy involves the fall (death) of the leading characters.
• Tragedy is designed to create sympathy or empathy for this character.
Ancient & Elizabethan Tragedy
• We should make a distinction between ancient Greek and Elizabethan tragedy. Greek tragedy dealt with the destruction of some noble person through fate.
• Elizabethan tragedy dealt as a rule with the destruction of some noble person through a flaw in his character.
Tragism
• Tragism is a situation of conflict when agreement is not possible.
Catharsis
• Tragedy arouses in us both pity and fear. This feeling is called catharsis, i.e. purgation.
• A tragic hero arouses pity or fear if he or she is neither thoroughly evil nor thoroughly good.
• The term catharsis refers to a sudden emotional breakdown or climax that constitutes overwhelming feelings of great sorrow, pity, laughter or any extreme change in emotion that results in the restoration, renewal and revitalisation.
Hamartia
• The protagonist becomes tragic due to what the Greeks called hamartia, i.e. the ‘tragic flaw’ or ‘tragic error in judgement’.
Hubris
• One of the forms of hamartia is hubris, i.e. pride or overconfidence which leads a man to overlook a divine warning or to break a moral law.
For example, King Lear’s hubris is what ultimately strips him of his power.
Tragic end
• The action of a tragic protagonist may be a fatal mistake (Romeo and Juliet, Othello) or a crime (Macbeth), but the end is always tragic.
Pity & fear
• The hero must be aware of his downfall. The effect of the tragedy is to produce pity or fear in the mind of the spectator and sympathy for the victim. The tragedy purifies people’s emotions and teaches them to accept fate or the order of things.
Tragic Visio
• The conclusion is catastrophic and inevitable.
• The protagonist’s fall is caused by some uncontrollable forces (fate, fortune or chance).
• The protagonist’s fall reveals his or her powerlessness and limitations.
• Tragedy reveals not only man’s liability to suffering but also to greatness and nobility.
• Suffering is an enduring and often inexplicable force in human life. The protagonist’s suffering often seems disproportionate to his or her culpability.
• Suffering is often but not always redemptive, bringing out the capacity for accepting moral responsibility.
• Man is responsible for his actions.
23. Features of comedy, farce, tragicomedy, modern tragicomedy (theatre of absurd).
Comedy
• Comedy is a literary work that takes a cheerful view of life.
• It usually begins in adversity and ends in prosperity and happiness (happy end).
Comic characters & situations
• Comedy is based on comic characters or comic situations or on both and it usually has a happy ending.
Komos
• Erotic and obscene songs were sung during fertility rituals.
• Comedy should have the view of a “comic spirit” and is physical and full of energy.
• It is connected with rebirth and renewal.
• That is why most comedies end in weddings, which suggest birth of children.
Caricature
• Caricature is a tendency to simplify characters in an extreme way.
Characters’ behaviour
The behaviour of the characters presented in comedy is ludicrous and sometimes absurd and the result in the audience is one of correction of behaviours.
Lack of plausibility
• Comic plays often lack plausibility; they are usually based on coincidences, improbable disguises, mistaken identities, etc.
The purpose of comedy
• The purpose of comedy is to make the audience laugh and – at the same time – to reveal human nature and human weaknesses
Farce is a type of comedy that relies entirely on highly improbable actions and situations which involve ridiculous complications without regard for human values
The farce presents highly exaggerated and caricatured types of characters and often has an unlikely plot.
Farces employ sexual mix-ups, verbal humour and physical comedy
Tragicomedy
• Tragicomedy is a blending of tragic and comic elements.
• Unlike comedy, tragicomedy reveals deep emotions and deals with the problems of human suffering, mortality and death.
• Unlike tragedy, tragicomedy rejects the inevitability of catastrophe, the need for heroism and sacrifice, and the role of destiny.
Modern tragicomedy. In the 20th century, many theorists do not make a sharp distinction
between the comic and the tragic. Modern tragicomedy and the Theatre of the Absurd have blurred the
traditional distinction between the two dramatic genres. Tragicomic elements can be seen in modern
drama, in the plays of Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, Slawomir Mrozek.
Theatre of the Absurd: a type of theatre which presents characters cut off from religious and social
roots and who live in meaningless isolation in an alien (absurd) universe.
24. Flashback, foreshadowing
Flashback: (a term derived from the language of cinema): it refers to an episode in narrative fiction that happened earlier in the story.
Foreshadowing: a suggestion of what is going to happen in the story
Foreshadowing is the technique of giving the reader a hint of what is to come sometime
later in the story, while flashback is an interruption in the action of a story to show an episode that
happened at an earlier time. A flashback provides background information necessary to an understanding
of the characters or the plot.
25. Physical & psychological plot
physical plot and a psychological plot. The latter is an invisible chain of “mental” events or thoughts occurring in the mind
of the protagonist. For example, the psychological plot in Hamlet concerns the thoughts of Prince Hamlet.
Frequently, the physical and psychological plots are interwoven in a play.
26. Protagonist and antagonist (in tragedy)
Antagonist: a character who opposes the main hero or protagonist.
The protagonist is often the main character (the central or main figure) of a story
The principal opponent of the protagonist is a character known as the antagonist, who represents or creates obstacles that the protagonist(s) must overcome
27. Symbol and symbolism.
Symbol
• The most common symbols are letters, which are symbols of words and sounds.
• A symbol can be an actual object, such as the crucifix (a symbol of Christianity).
• Symbols are used often in poetry and other types of literature.
• Symbolism is the applied use of symbols: iconic representations that carry particular conventional meanings.
Symbolism may be understood as representation of reality by symbols or a system of symbols or
symbolic meaning in a literary text
It is not easy to define a symbol. Poetry makes an extensive use of symbols, but they can also be
found in drama and prose fiction. A symbol may be an object or image that stands for something else.
Many symbols are deeply rooted in cultural heritage, e.g. the cross is the symbol of Christianity; birds
may mean flight, freedom; rose means beauty, delicacy, fragility, shortness of life; rain may signify
fertility; night may symbolise death or evil. Some symbols are created by authors and it is difficult to
understand their meaning and significance unless we have studied critical analyses
28. Catharsis, comic relief (in tragedy), tragic relief (in comedy), dramatic irony, deux ex machina.
Catharsis: a tragedy performed in the theatre was believed by Aristotle to produce an emotionally
therapeutic effect in the audience: the purgation of pity and fear
Tragic relief: a tragic or near-tragic episode in a Comedy
Deux ex machina
• Accidental discovery, an act of unexpected intervention (deus ex machina = god out of a machine) or sudden reform are common comedic devices.
Deus ex machina: a Latin phrase meaning ‘god from the machine’, referring to the practice in ancient
theatre of lowering a deity onto the stage to resolve a crisis in the plot. The phrase is now applied to any improbable event, chance or coincidence used by a dramatist to rescue characters from an impossible situation.
Dramatic irony: dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something that a character has not
realised.
29. Novel, types of novels, short story, fable, tale, fairy tale
Novel: a long story written in prose dealing with invented people (characters) and events.
Adventure novel focuses on exciting events
Autobiographical novel is based partly or wholly on the author’s life experience
Christian novel reflects Christian faith and often contains a plot that revolves around the
Christian life, evangelism or conversion. The plot may be directly religious, allegorical or symbolic.
Detective novel describes a mystery, often involving a murder, which is solved by a professional
or amateur detective. A good detective novel displays excellent logic of reasoning in unravelling the
mystery or crime.
Epistolary novel is written in the form of letters
Ethnic or multicultural novel is written by a member of or about an ethnic minority group
Fantasy novel is written in an unrealistic manner, describing a non-existent world, such as that
on another planet, in the far future or in a fairyland.
Gothic novel was the product of a superficial interest in the Middle Ages. Gothic elements
included the supernatural, the weird and the mysterious.
Historical novel is set in the past, i.e. its plot refers to historical events.
Pastoral novel shows the pleasures of the simple rural life and disgust with urban stresses.
Panoramic novel has a loose plot and does not have main characters as a rule. Characters are
types rather than individuals.
Realist novel is one of the most popular subgenres of the novel. Realism is a vague term and so
is the idea of reality.
Romantic novel aims to arouse emotions rather than reflect reality
Social novel (social problem novel, social concern novel) studies the effect of economic and
social conditions upon human behaviour during a given period of time
Novel of apprenticeship (Bildungsroman) deals with upbringing and education.
Sentimental novel is a type of the novel that excessively emphasises emotion
Novel of manners is a form of a realistic novel which deals with aspects of behaviour, language,
customs and values characteristic of a particular class of people in a specific historical context.
Utopian novel presents a perfect society where the problems of poverty, crime etc. have been
eliminated.
Dystopian novel is an anti-utopian novel, where unlike the utopian novel, the attempt to create a
perfect society has gone wrong.
The term short story usually refers to short fiction written since the mid 19th century. A short
story differs from the novel by the fact that it is much shorter in length. A short story introduces a limited number of characters. As a rule, it has one central character and very few others. Exposition and the details of setting are minimised. Frequently, a short story is limited to a single episode and the denouement is sometimes described in a few sentences.
Fables are short allegorical stories about animals and objects which have human and mysterious qualities. They contain a distinct moral message, e.g. they illustrate the consequences of human weaknesses or foils, such as greed, envy, laziness, etc.
Fairy tales are traditional stories with elements of fantasy. They are usually set in a fantasy land and present stock characters such as ‘a princess’, ‘a cruel stepmother’, ‘the greedy king’, a ‘good’ or ‘bad’
giant, as well as supernatural objects, such as the magic tablecloth, golden egg etc
30. Rhetorical question.
Rhetorical question: a question which is not intended to obtain information but for emphasis, Rhetorical questions encourage the listener to reflect on what the implied answer to the question must be
31. Conceit, oxymoron....
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