Tragic Genre Research Articles

Szenen einer Gattung

Abstract The paper discusses metapoetic reflections in German drama around 1800. It argues that Goethe, Schiller and Kleist challenge the tragic form by blurring the differences to lyric and epic poetry. The starting point is the thesis that the paradigm of heroism, which has defined the tragic genre from the very beginning, falls into crisis. Both contemporary poetics and literary texts demonstrate this development: Heroism neither functions as an ideal way to constructing a character nor of organizing political plots which successfully rely on and account for personal greatness. To illustrate this, the essay focuses on significant metapoetic scenes from Goethe’s, Schiller’s and Kleist’s dramas and reads them as ‘scenes from a genre’ for which the female characters play a decisive role. Thus, it discusses how the selected dramas reflect on the principles of genre and on the ever-permeable boundaries of genre which lead to questions of political heroism and charismatic authority at the dawn of modernity. The political drama would therefore be incomplete without taking into account the gendering of political agency. Political heroism as well as the form of heroic tragedy are challenged by critical perspectives brought into play by female voices.

“The coming darkness”: Romantic Tragedy, Shakespeare, and Nahua Myth in Cormac McCarthy’s The Passenger and Stella Maris

ABSTRACT Cormac McCarthy has stated that tragedy is central to human experience and that “the core of literature is the idea of tragedy.” Furthermore, he maintains that the tragic genre probes how humans “deal with” the bad things that happen to them. McCarthy’s duology, The Passenger and Stella Maris, locates its main narrative concerning Alicia and Bobby Western’s taboo love within the framework of romantic tragedy. Incest has been a much-revisited topic within Western tragedy. Consider the dramas of Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, John Webster, John Ford, Henrik Ibsen, and Eugene O’Neill. In McCarthy’s treatment, incest is an impediment to reciprocal love. This tragic fatedness crosses any expectations Alicia and Bobby court of mutual happiness and fulfillment. The duology explores the siblings’ ways of dealing with their tragic condition, the romantic Alicia’s all-or-nothing, self-destructive passion and the ascetic Bobby’s attitude of self-denial and endurance. Two tragic antecedents further inform McCarthy’s examination of forbidden love: William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1597) and the Nahua myth of the warrior Popocatépetl and the princess Iztaccíhuatl. The article concludes by proposing that, despite the duology’s preoccupation with the tragic human condition, the narrative tentatively gestures to a state of being that might, perhaps, lie beyond tragedy.

현대 비극의 ‘사라지는 하마르티아’와 ‘투쟁의 운명’

This paper analyzes the specific characteristics of classical tragedies and the essence of tragedy in modern drama, mainly focusing on John Millington Synge’s Riders to the Sea. Arthur Miller defined the possibility of modern tragedy as the tragic experience of the common man in relationship to the environment. However, in the modern era, the environment is often represented or segmented by capitalism, leading to the misconception that modern tragedy may be succinctly defined by the struggles of ordinary people facing continuous situational hardships in pursuit of their dreams. In contrast, Synge’s tragic drama Riders to the Sea (first performed in 1904), which this paper observes, is grounded in an isolated natural setting while still remaining connected with the realm of the divine or the universe. Focusing on the phase of vanishing hamartia, the escape from guilt of the subjects, and the expansion of the concept of necessity from outer to their inner sphere, this paper argues how classic tragic essence is also manifested in modern plays, provoking profound thoughts among the audience and elevating their souls through elegant suffering and intellectual clarification in its own way. In its characteristic of stillness, where the conclusion is drawn out over an entire lifetime of struggle and disguised to obscure emotional suffering beneath a veneer of pessimism or idealism, the modern tragic drama establishes its own tragic genre with catharsis and magnitude. This contributes to a deeper level of meaningful understanding in the lives of all ordinary people in the contemporary world.

The Embodiment of the Tragic in the Qin and Peking Operas

The article is devoted to the problem of refl ecting the “tragic” in Chinese art. The tragic genre in Chinese culture dates back to antiquity, and a vivid example of its embodiment in national music are the Qin and Peking operas, in which emotions, shades of moods, feelings, images and tragic life situations are subtly expressed. The origins of the Chinese tragedy lie in the contradictory political situation and the tragic life of the people, which signifi cantly infl uenced the psychology of people. An important expressive means of the Qin opera is specifi c “bitter voices” (⧰⍽ⱘ)) and “scattered and mournful sounds” (㔖ᢔಌढ़ⱘ)), conveying tragic pictures and stories that serve as an expression of pain and bitterness. The Peking opera performance is based on the “unique descending sound of singing” (⁛․⊛)), the use of microtones and imitation of crying, which contributes to a specifi c vocal sound and creates a special atmosphere, forming a singing style with strong tragic overtones. The purpose of the article is to explore the specifi cs of refl ecting the tragic in Chinese operas.

Особенность художественного конфликта в исторических драмах Ж. Токумаева «Чума» и Д. Мамчуевой «Акбилек – последняя звезда Алании»

The article is the first attempt in the Karachay-Balkar literary criticism to analyze the historical dramas of Zh. Tokumaeva “The Plague” and D. Mamchuyeva “Akbilek – the last star of Alanya”. This category, having arisen at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries, has not become the object of re-search by specialists yet. Its appearance was because of large-scale developments in society and a visible increase in interest in issues of ethnic identity and self-identification. The transition to a new evolutionary stage of national drama naturally began with an appeal to previously forbidden topics, during that time, several tragedies were created immediately devoted to deportation, reli-gious issues, previously closed moments in the history of the Karachay-Balkarian people. Conflict institutionalizes stage literature to a much greater extent than any other genre, which determines the purpose of this article - to identify various types of conflict and conflict ty-pology in works from the perestroika and post-perestroika periods. Several types of conflict opposition were identified during the research, using genre-typological and comparative-historical approaches: unconditional antagonism, struggle for power, clashes between feeling and duty, between “their own”, love, political, moral confrontation, and so on. It also became clear that historical drama is not limited to depicting only significant moments from an ethnic group’s heroic past, military actions - these plays are relevant and contemporary to the social, socio-political, and philosophical issues raised in them thus far. National dramatists with no experience in mastering this topic failed to complete the task set for them equally suc-cessfully (Zh. Tokumaev), but D. Mamchueva in the play “Akbilek - the last star of Alanya” over-came all the difficulties of the tragic genre and created a highly artistic work that meets the re-quirements of drama theory.

Th e healing the „wounded identity” through the spiritualization of the tragic

Th e author of the paper signals, fi rst of all, the urgent need to introduce the phrase “wounded identity” (Michael Pollak) into the scientifi c circuit manifested with unparalleled eloquence in Transylvania and Bessarabia. The excursion into the area of autochthonous arts of the post-war period resulted in the discovery in the subtext of the works by I. Druță, V. Vasilache, G. Vieru, etc. of the “obsession with self-identifi cation”, which later becomes the guide of the subject and of genuistically-stylistic structures. The cardinal problem of the nation’s consciousness, that of losing oneself in the rush of the “terror of history”, is extrapolated in the 60s in the seventh art, culminating in the two archetypal samples: Pădurea spânzuraților/ The Forest of the Hanged and Gustul pâinii/The Taste of Bread, inscribed in the solemn gravity of the tragic genre. In these cinematographic works of universal resonance, the unprecedented psychoanalytic survey impresses the turbulent state of mind of the protagonists, who face, even at the cost of their lives, the nation’s Golgotha “of carrying the life of a stranger in oneself ” (L. Rebreanu). Th e fi lms, subjected to a comparative analysis, reveal the shocking phenomenon — the interpenetration of the great echoes of the ancient tragedy; the prophecies of nature and music corresponding to the famous chorus. In conclusion, the author launches a novel hypothesis: the “ethnic renaissance” is due to the recuperative mission — the healing of the “wounded identity” through the cathartic impact of the work of art.

La representación de Dioniso en los fragmentos de la Licurgía de Esquilo

My purpose in this paper is to analize the trilogy Lycurgeia of Aeschylus in order to provide an insight into the characterization of Dionysus in the tragic genre. The extant fragments describe his androgynous appearance and the effects of his arrival in Thracia. Other sources on the same myth will be included; particularly I will focus on Euripides’ Bacchae, because of its links with the myth of Pentheus.

Reframing Tragedy

Reframing Tragedy

К ВОПРОСУ ОБ ЭСТЕТИЗАЦИИ СОВРЕМЕННОЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ

In the process of retrospective analysis of cultural epochs, one can observe the movement of the pendulum of culture from aestheticism to moralizing, and vice versa. One of the first critics of aestheticization was S. Kierkegaard, who, without denying the significance of the aesthetic, placed the latter below the ethical in the spiritual hierarchy. Domestic philosophers defended the need for a synthesis of ethics and aesthetics. Researchers of the twentieth century point to the trend of total aestheticization, the transformation and deformation of basic moral ideals. In modern times, the phenomenon of aestheticization of all social spheres, including politics and economics, is being updated, which is largely due to the formation of a «consumer society», visual and digital turns in culture. The article analyzes the main features of postmodernism that contribute to aestheticization: fragmentation, massification, clip consciousness, visual turn, loss of sacredness of traditional meanings and symbols. All of the above contributes to the strengthening of the aesthetic component and the violation of the ethical and aesthetic balance. The authors reveal that the absolutization of beauty in art leads to the degradation of tragic genres based on ethical conflicts. Art is able to educate, form a value hierarchy. Thus, art has possibilities that transform a person, which are contained in the synthetic integrity of the ethical and aesthetic, therefore, it already acquires cosmological parameters. In turn, aestheticization as the dominant of culture leads to moral limitations and the destruction of the spiritual integrity of man and society.

Ateneo como fuente de Sófocles, Syndeipnoi (Fr. 565 Radt)

Athenaeus of Naucratis is the main source for Sophocles’ fragment 565 (ed. Radt). Ever since it was referenced in The Deipnosophists, the fragment has been considered unworthy of the tragic genre, given the representation of comic and playful elements in a serious and solemn atmosphere. However, in this article we provide new data that vindicates the solemnity of these verses, which, in our opinion, perfectly fit the expected dramaturgical style of the author.

LA PAIDEIA A TRAVÉS DE LA LITERATURA GRIEGA: DEL TRIUNFO INDIVIDUAL AL BIENESTAR SOCIAL

This work proposes a reflection on the integral formation of the human being, a problem in force to this day, in Greek civilization, since in it literature had to fulfill a privileged place. The success of a good education translates into personal and social achievement and recognition. The tragic contests, whose spectators did not have any economic impediment that prevented them from attending thanks to the the o rikón (public money destined to the payment of tickets to the theater), are proof of the presence of the dramatic genre in the representation of characters whose events had precipitated them to misfortune in the tragic genre but also success in comedy. The famous passage from Aristophanes Frogs 1053-6 places the teacher of children on a level of equality with the poet for adults. Lyric poetry is also a teaching tool for Theognis who advises his young lover Cyrnus how to adapt his behavior in order to achieve success in his life. Solon, a politician, anguished by the dangers that could loom over Athens, exhorts his fellow citizens to live according to criteria based on justice. Xenophon recreates an image of Cyrus as the ideal sovereign who has managed to forge a vast empire, thanks to his personal qualities, lineage and education. Ischomachus, main character of the story in the mouth of Socrates in the Oeconomicus also by Xenophon, owes much of his prosperity to the teachings that he has transmitted to his young wife. Ultimately, Herodas's Mime III " The Teacher " offers a real painting of education in antiquity in which blows were part of it.

An Israeli–Palestinian Hecuba: Hanoch Levin’s Anti-Tragedy

AbstractThe Lost Women of Troy by Hanoch Levin, Israel’s foremost playwright of the twentieth century, is an adaptation of Euripides’ Trojan Women and Hecuba. Staged in Tel Aviv in 1984 during the First Lebanon War, Lost Women focuses on the bereavement and humiliation of Hecuba. Levin reconfigures this character to reflect mothers on both sides of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Through a subversion of the aesthetics of tragedy, Levin’s play is an indictment of the notion of heroism prevalent in Israeli society. It presents a bitter criticism of his public’s acceptance of the ideology of war and their participation in a narrative that glorifies those who die in combat as heroes. Levin’s critique, I argue, is formulated as a textual sparagmos, a violent tearing apart of Euripides’ tragedies and the conventions in which they operate. Levin’s metatheatrical violence against the tragic genre parallels the inherent violence of the discourse of heroism which his adaptation seeks to expose and denounce.

Philosophy and the Drama of Life: A Theater Experience of Understanding F.M. Dostoevsky

The article aims at a multidimensional discussion of the little-explored topic of the dramatic content of the philosophical problems in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky (1821—1881). There is proved that it was this feature of creativity that made the writer, with his philosophy of life and sharp, dramatically effective plot and psychological collisions, the most desirable and very productive author for the Russian theater art.Polyphony, dialogism, combined with the features of the tragic genre, are the basis for numerous theatrical embodiments of novels and novellas by F.M. Dostoevsky. The intensity of the action in his works gave rise to the expressions “novel-drama” or “drama in a novel”, “novel-tragedy”, and in theatrical practice it created the ground for the transformation of moral and philosophical problems into active stage action.The article reveals the context of F.M. Dostoevsky’s works — the time and conditions for the emergence of novels and novellas, the problem field that united and separated him from the works of his predecessors and contemporaries, which is done on the basis of a brief description of several aspects of the philosophical-aesthetic and socio-moral systems. In this context, according to our concept, a special place is occupied by the idea that life in Russia is absurd and ridiculous, and the reflection of the absurd is the most important artistic paradigm.The article proves that the analyzed philosophy of F.M. Dostoevsky’s life received polar genre embodiments in the theater. Thus, the dramatic and melodramatic beginning was characteristic of the performances that had in their center the so-called little man. The article presents an understanding of the most remarkable performances of the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century: “The Idiot” by G. Tovstonogov, with a new trend of searching for a “positively beautiful” person, which had a significant impact on many theatrical experiences in Russia; “The Petersburg Dreams” by Yu. Zavadsky, as a unique experience for Soviet art of creating a tragic work in full accordance with the aesthetic characteristics of this genre; “And I Will Go, and I Will Go” by V. Fokin, as the last emotional outburst of the young generation of Soviet creators who thought in the moral and psychological parameters of F.M. Dostoevsky’s characters; “The Karamazovs” by K. Bogomolov — a postmodern experience of an absurdist reading of the multifaceted text of the classic.In the works of the writer and their theatrical embodiment, the article notes the signs of a carnival worldview, a combination of grotesque and subtle psychologism in the stage versions of F.M. Dostoevsky (in particular, when working with ironic and satirical texts, “Uncle’s Dream” and especially “The Village of Stepanchikovo”, where sympathy and negative connotations are integrated into a single artistic space). The article correlates the writer’s works existential interpretations by theatrical creators of the 20th and early 21st centuries with socially significant problems, life choices, and dramatic conflicts that characterize Dostoevsky’s philosophy.

Hölderlin e a poética do paradoxo

This article seeks to clarify and expose the principle of Hölderlin's “poetic logic”, as it appears in the “poetological” texts, mainly in the Observations on Oedipus and Antigone. As we try to show here, Hölderlin's “poetic logic” does not follow the principles of formal logic, but it comes close to dialectical logic, although it cannot be reduced to Hegelian dialectics. The logic here is not aimed at standardizing the rules of the use of thought, but at poetic practice, whose nature, in Hölderlin's sense, consists in the paradoxical apprehension of existence as such. Although it can be more clearly observed in the tragic genre, this paradoxical logic of poetry also permeates Hölderlin's so-called late hymns, such as Patmos and Bread and wine, in which tragic oppositions are coated in the elegiac form.

TRAGIC NOISE AND RHETORICAL FRIGIDITY IN LYCOPHRON'SALEXANDRA

AbstractThis paper seeks to shed fresh light on the aesthetic and stylistic affiliations of Lycophron'sAlexandra, approaching the poem from two distinct but complementary angles. First, it explores what can be gained by reading Lycophron's poem against the backdrop of Callimachus’ poetry. It contends that theAlexandrapresents a radical and polemical departure from the Alexandrian's poetic programme, pointedly appropriating key Callimachean images while also countering Callimachus’ apparent dismissal of the ‘noisy’ tragic genre. Previous scholarship has noted links between the openings of theAetiaand of theAlexandra, but this article demonstrates that this relationship is only one part of a larger aesthetic divide between the two poets: by embracing the raucous acoustics of tragedy, Lycophron's poem offers a self-conscious and agonistic departure from Callimachus’ aesthetic preferences. Second, this article considers another way of conceiving the aesthetics of the poem beyond a Callimachean frame, highlighting how Lycophron pointedly engages with and evokes earlier Aristotelian literary criticism concerning the ‘frigid’ style: theAlexandraconstructs its own independent literary history centred around the alleged name of its author, ‘Lycophron’. The article proposes that this traditional attribution is best understood as a pen name that signposts the poem's stylistic affiliations, aligning it not so much with the Ptolemaic playwright Lycophron of Chalcis but rather with Lycophron the sophist and a larger rhetorical tradition of stylistic frigidity. Ultimately, through these two approaches, the article highlights further aspects of theAlexandra's aesthetic diversity.

ТРАГЕДИЯ В ДРАМАТУРГИИ Л. ТИКА: НЕКОТОРЫЕ АСПЕКТЫ

The article considers the genre of tragedy in the works of L. Tieck, one of the key figures of German Romanticism. It is known that the tragedy genre among the German romantics is represented mainly by two varieties: the “tragedy of fate” (Schicksalsdrama) and the drama on a religious-historical theme (in literature most often referred to as Universaldrama, “universal drama”). L. Tieck stands at the origins of both genres, while the tragedy “The Life and Death of Saint Genoveva” (1801), to which other religious and historical dramas of German romanticism go back, turned out to be especially influential. Having created examples of those two genres, Tieck rethinks tragic structures, relativizing them in different ways – firstly, by transforming the tragic genre itself, and, secondly, by including tragic elements into the complex genre constructs, mainly into fairy-tale dramas. That rethinking, however, takes place mostly in the mainstream of the parody typical of Tieck’s work – whether it is a parody of the “main” tragedy with a comedy counterpart or the inclusion of parodies of the tragedy, including his own tragedies, in comedy texts. At the same time, however, Tieck’s last dramatic work, “Fortunat”, which has much in common with his fairy-tale dramas and, like them, is a complex genre construct, ends in tragedy in its purest form, the triumph of the tragic substance. In our opinion that testifies to the impossibility of complete relativization of tragedy and to the crisis of romantic drama

THE AESCHYLEAN STING INWASPS’ TALE: ARISTOPHANES’ ENGAGEMENT WITH THEORESTEIA

The sting to Aristophanes’ ‘little tale’ inWasps(λογίδιον,Vesp.64) materializes from the comedy's interplay with theOresteia. This article argues that Aristophanes alludes to bothAgamemnonandEumenidesin the scenes running up to (and including) the trial scene, and that he exploits this intertext in the cloak scene (Vesp.1122–264). While isolated allusions to theOresteiahave been identified inWasps, a systematic consideration of these references has not been undertaken: a surprising absence in discussions of the ongoing competition between the comic and the tragic genres permeatingWasps’ dramatic action. Moreover, Aristophanes’ engagement with theOresteiaoffers a special type of tragic intertext, in which the first and the last plays of a connected trilogy are referenced simultaneously, provocatively destabilizing the original. Furthermore, this allusion has implications for our understanding of a scene which recent scholarship has established as pivotal within the comedy, namely the cloak scene. The first part of this article, therefore, establishes the extent ofWasps’ engagement with theOresteiaand considers the significance of the ‘pastiche’ formed through the combined intertextual references toAgamemnonand toEumenides. The second part explores the impact of this intertext on the interpretation of the cloak scene, revealing that its use of costume can be understood as a criticism of Aeschylus’ dramaturgy, inviting a negative reading of Bdelycleon's ideological stance and reinforcing the play's pessimistic view of the Athenian law courts.

Costume’s Comic and Intertextual Potential: The Case of Philocleon’s Cloak

AbstractPhilocleon’s enforced costume change (Vesp. 1122–73) has rich potential as an exemplum through which to explore comic costume’s production of humor and its contribution to theatrical discourse. This discussion offers fresh observations about the humor generated from Philocleon’s costume change and identifies its “intertextual” relationship with Aeschylus’s Oresteia, Aristophanes’s Acharnians and Knights. The ‘cloak scene,’ it is argued, forms an integral part of the ongoing competition between the comic and tragic genre in Wasps. Moreover, this case study points to the on-going significance of costume in Aristophanes’s dialectic with tragedy and in his discourse on theatre in general.

Le spectre de la défaite

Napoleon took theatre in great consideration and used to be extremely vigilant with respect to possible political implications in the tragic genre. Even if the creation of new tragedies was encouraged by the government, there were only a small amount of creation at the Comedie-Francaise during the Napoleonian Age and their success was often due to the quality of its interpreters. During this period, melodrame proves to be the most creative and innovative genre, and it is also the most appreciated by the public. This paper will focus on the historical character of Tippo-Saeb as he was represented in Etienne de Jouy’s tragedy of the same name. To better underline the contradictions and uncertainties of the tragic genre, the political and aesthetic implications of the play, Jouy’s text will be analyzed in comparison with the melodrame Tipoo-Saib ou la Prise de Seringapatam by Dubois and Gobert of the same period.

Bérénice on Trial: Judging Corneille Against Racine

On 21 November 1670, Parisian spectators could watch Racine's Bérénice at the Hôtel de Bourgogne and, a week later, attend the premiere of Corneille's Tite et Bérénice at the Palais Royal, as the playwrights and their troupes vied for box office success. Despite Racine's victory, scholarship on the playwrights has minimized the importance of this duel as just one among many guerres comiques. This essay argues that the comedy, Tite et Titus ou Critique sur les Bérénices, published anonymously in 1673, enables a better understanding of how the duelling plays were a defining experience for both playwrights. The comedy stages Racine's Titus and Corneille's Tite, who come before the god Apollon in judgment, accusing one another of impersonation. Understanding the allegory of the Parnasse trial renders visible the stakes of the Bérénice duel and illustrates the changing reception of the tragic genre in the last quarter of seventeenth-century France.