Investigating the origins of Peter Wessel Zapffe’s notion of tragedy in Aristotle’sPoetics: the case ofmimesis

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to present the philosophical figure of a Norwegian philosopher and writer, creator of biosophy, Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899–1990), and to investigate the origins of his notion of tragedy (tragic experience) which he introduces in his magnum opusOm det tragiske(1941). I attempt to do so by searching its roots in antique theory of tragedy introduced by Aristotle, especially on the pages ofPoetics, to which Zapffe himself often refers to. A study of how Zapffe “read” and understood Aristotle’sPoetics, a classical piece for the study of tragedy and tragic experience, seems essential for establishing the roots and foundations of his own vision of tragedy and its functions, finally shifting from the purely literary sphere to the biosophical level of human existence. In this paper I will focus mainly on the notion and art ofmimesis, laying the basis for further detailed studies of Zapffe’s biosophical analysis of the subject.