LITR 4533 Tragedy lecture notes

begin Oedipus the King

Tuesday, 10 June 2008: begin Sophocles, Oedipus the King (pages 1-24 of handout / email, up to Jocasta's emergence from palace) + handout on Sigmund Freud and The Oedipus Complex in Oedipus the King and Hamlet (both the Oedipus & Hamlet texts will be emailed to students)

Text-objective discussion: Bryan McDonald

Film / video presentation: Shanna Farmer

Thursday, 12 June 2008: conclude Oedipus the King (complete); also read Act 3, Scene 4 from Shakespeare's Hamlet [handout / email]

Text-objective discussion: Lindsay Groth

Film / video presentation (option 3: Act 3, scene 4 from Hamlet in a contemporary film): Whitney Evans

Monday, 16 June 2008: begin Aeschylus, Agamemnon [email text file]

Text-objective discussion: Jeannette Enderle

Film / video presentation (option 2: comedy): Adrian Holden

typical way of studying tragedy in high school, etc., is through character

especially "the tragic hero" or heroine

especially in terms of "the tragic flaw"

Aristotle's Poetics

XIII.  . . .  There remains, then, the character between these two extremes--that of a man who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty.  He must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous--a personage like Oedipus, Thyestes, or other illustrious men of such families. . . .

"high" metaphor again

point: innumerable classrooms have spent innumerable hours discussing whether Oedipus or Hamlet is a proper tragic hero and, if so, what is their tragic flaw?

but notice that Aristotle's Poetics doesn't discuss these issues of character very much

Instead, Aristotle concentrates on the plot of tragedy

VI.  Tragedy . . . is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude . . . .

            Again, tragedy is the imitation of an action . . . . Hence, the plot is the imitation of the action--for by plot I here mean the arrangement of the incidents. . . .

            But most important of all is the structure of the incidents.  For tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action, not a quality.  Now character determines men's qualities, but it is by their actions that they are happy or the reverse. . . .  [T]he most powerful elements of emotional interest in tragedy--peripeteia or reversal of the situation, and recognition scenes--are parts of the plot.  A further proof is, that novices in the art attain to finish of diction and precision of portraiture before they can construct the plot. . . .

            The plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy: character holds the second place.  A similar fact is seen in painting.  The most beautiful colors, laid on confusedly, will not give as much pleasure as the chalk outline of a portrait. . . .

Remember from Aristotle: 

plot = soul of tragedy

Advantages of teaching tragedy as "character" or "tragic flaw" (instead of narrative):

--concentration on one text instead of needing several texts to build case

--invites discussion of "ethical" or "moral" questions standard to earlier education in literature:

Is the tragic hero a good or bad person?

Did s/he do the right or wrong thing?

Students find characters easier to identify with or judge than plot.

“Narrative genre” refers to the kind of story or plot that a work of literature tells or enacts. The source for such literary criticism is Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (1957), according to which there are four basic story lines:

• Tragedy
• Comedy
• Romance
• Satire

Though distinct, these narratives often work in combination—for instance, romantic comedy. Or an episode of one narrative genre may appear in another, like the comic gravedigger’s scene in the tragedy of Hamlet.

Narrative = plot, story, story-line, unfolding or sequence of events, how one thing leads to another

Very simple, but for same reason very difficult to study

Almost magical, it’s so natural

Humans as story-tellers

Oedipal conflict

Questions:

How / why do readers confront the Oedipal conflict--or not?

What attractions / repulsions?

How resolve?

What know about it?

Electra complex?

other ways of conceiving plot / narrative

3 ways of comprehending plot

1. ritual (before quiz)

2. psychology (put off until Hamlet)

3. search for truth; conflict > resolution
after break: how is Oedipus like a detective story?)

ritual

--ritualistic or religious dimension to narrative--

drama in classical Greece and Shakespeare's Renaissance grows out of religious festivals or rituals--

Compare theater and church:

altar as stage

congregation as audience

Opens subject of conflict between church and theater, "Religious Right" and "Hollywood"--fighting over same kind of public space and who controls it.

compare / contrast Oedipus & detective story

Classical Greece and tragedy

link to research page

Early Greek Poets

• Homer (8th c BCE)--Iliad, Odyssey, Homeric Hymns
   

• Sappho (late 7^th c. BCE) "Of an estimated 12,000 lines of verse attributed to her, virtually all is lost, much having been destroyed by the medieval Church: one complete poem, some citations, and fragments survive. Originally accompanied by lyre, her poetry included cultic hymns, mythological narrative, epithalamia, satire, and intensely passionate poetry about women." (Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States)

Tragic Playwrights of Classical Greece

• Aeschylus 525-456 BCE
   
• Sophocles 496-406 BCE
   
• Euripides 480-406 BCE

Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound (ca. 478?) + Oresteia trilogy (456); Seven Against Thebes

Sophocles. Oedipus Rex (date unknown), Antigone (early) + Oedipus at Colonnus (prod. 401)

Euripides. Medea (431) + The Trojan Women (415), The Bacchae (405), Electra, Heracles--and Hippolytus (429 BCE), on which Racine's Phedre(1677) and O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms (1924) are based.

Classical Greek Comic Playwright: Aristophanes c. 448-385 BCE

The Birds (414 BCE), Lysistrata (411), The Wasps, The Frogs (405)

Classical Greek Philosophers (many others are less well known)

Socrates 470-400 BCE

Plato 428-348 BCE

Aristotle 384-322 BCE

final note on spectacle > conclusion of Oedipus

introduce narrative

humans live stories--they hear or see stories and imitate them in their own lives.

"I've modeled my life after [my hero]."

or negative model (only proves the point).

"I don't want to grow up to be like [my dad, mom, brother, sister, etc.]."

So narrative or story telling is a natural part of being human.

If natural, hard to analyze, hard to get distance on.

As students of literature, we need images, metaphors, figures, something to visualize or sense to make ideas feel important.

To satisfy that need, first analyze source of problem:

Narrative takes place in time, therefore hard to stop it and see it and analyze it

Compare to character: we can see a character like Hamlet, or Juliet, or MacBeth, and we can more or less identify with them. Therefore character is powerful . . . .

But not as powerful as plot or narrative.

To sense the power of plot or narrative, we need descriptions or metaphors that work in time

Plain description of narrative: A representation of people speaking and acting together in time.

Sense that we know what comes next, or what comes next is pleasing and appropriate

in novel, what makes us turn pages? in play or movie, what keeps us from coming in at the middle or leaving at the middle?

Literature majors—must be self-conscious

Aristotle p. 2, part 9 cause and effect + surprise

 Such an effect is best produced when the events come on us by surprise; and the effect is heightened when, at the same time, they follow as cause and effect. . . .

Possible analogy from music: melody

But not a music theory class, so more standard academic routes:

3 ways of comprehending plot

1. ritual (before quiz)

2. psychology (put off until Hamlet)

3. search for truth; conflict > resolution
after break: how is Oedipus like a detective story?)

ritual

--ritualistic or religious dimension to narrative--

drama in classical Greece and Shakespeare's Renaissance grows out of religious festivals or rituals--

Compare theater and church:

altar as stage

congregation as audience

Opens subject of conflict between church and theater, "Religious Right" and "Hollywood"--fighting over same kind of public space and who controls it.

Bedford, p 72, column 1, scene description: "altars"

compare Church: communion as drama?

Narrative as re-enactment of set pattern: "Do as I have done"

first tragedies performed as part of religious festivals

with religious aspect, see why

plot resonates across time and on several levels--why plot is soul of tragedy, and good story matters to us

Finally, different kinds of rituals: baptism, initiation, wedding, funeral, communion, thanksgiving

Each has different sets of expectations, patterns, conclusions.

Compare 4 narrative genres:

• Tragedy
• Comedy
• Romance
• Satire