LITR 4533 Tragedy lecture notes

conclude Oedipus the King

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

“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.

Tragedy. The story begins with a problem that is significant to society, its leaders, or its representatives. The problem may originate in the “tragic flaw” of the hero or heroine, or it may represent a temptation or error that human beings recognize, such as greed, vanity, or self-righteousness. Either way, the error or fault or problem is intimate and integral to our human identities; it is not "objectified" to a villain or outside force, as in romance. The action consists of an attempt to discover the truth about the problem, to follow or trace or absorb its consequences, to restore justice (even at cost to oneself), or to regain moral control of the situation. The tragedy ends with the resolution of the problem and the restoration of justice, often accompanied by the death, banishment, or quieting of the tragic hero.

Comedy. This story-line also often begins with a problem or a mistake (as in mistaken identity), but the problem is less significant than tragedy. The problem may involve a recognizable social situation, but unlike tragedy, the problem does not intimately threaten or shake the audience, the state, or the larger world. The problem often takes the form of mistaken or false identity: one person being taken for another, disguises, cross-dressing, dressing up or down. The action consists of characters trying to resolve the problem or live up to the demands of the false identity, or of other characters trying to reconcile the “new identity” with the “old identity.” Comedy ends with the problem overcome or the disguise abandoned. Usually the problem was simply “a misunderstanding” rather than a tragic error. The concluding action of a comedy is easy to identify. Characters join in marriage, song, dance, or a party, demonstrating a restoration of unity. (TV "situation comedies" like Friends or The Cosby Show end with the characters re-uniting in a living room or some other common space.) Occasionally, as in slapstick or farce, comic endings are “circular” with the beginning: the comic characters simply “run away,” supposedly to continue the comic action elsewhere, as in the conclusion of some sketches by the Three Stooges or Laurel and Hardy.  In “dark comedy,” the conclusion is sometimes one of exhaustion, as in The War of the Roses or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Romance. This story may open as though all is well, but action usually begins with a problem of separation. Characters are separated from each other (e. g., a true-love romance), or a need arises to rescue someone (a lost-child story); or characters are separated from some object of desire (as with the search for the Holy Grail or Romancing the Stone or a lottery ticket). Action often takes the form of a physical journey or adventure; characters may be captured or threatened and rescued. Action may take the form of a personal transformation or a journey across class lines, as in Cinderella, Pretty Woman, or An Officer and a Gentleman.  The conclusion of a romance narrative is typically “transcendence”—“getting away from it all” or “rising above it all.” The characters “live happily ever after” or “ride off into the sunset” or “fly away” from the scenes of their difficulties (in contrast with tragedy’s social engagement or comedy’s restored unity). Characters in romance tend to be starkly good or bad, in contrast with tragedy’s “mixed” characters. The problem that starts the action is usually attributed less to a flaw in the hero than to a villain or some outside force. (Most Hollywood movies are romances, but some “independent movies” involve tragedy.)

Satire.  The word “satire” appropriately comes from the Greek for “mixed-dish,” as its story-line tends to be extremely episodic and opportunistic. In fact, the satiric narrative depends for its narrative integrity on the audience’s knowledge of the original story being satirized. For instance, Hot Shots appears to be simply an unconnected series of goofy scenes unless you’ve seen Top Gun, in which case you know that episodes from the satire spoof or parody episodes from the original film. Young Frankenstein similarly depends on a familiarity with the original Frankenstein or at least with the cliches of old-time horror movies. (As a single-voiced example, an impersonator depends on his audience’s knowledge of a celebrity’s mannerisms and foibles.)  Structurally, the satirical narrative will end somewhat like the original narrative, but, in terms of tone, the seriousness or pretensions of the original narrative will be deflated.

assignments

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

Read Agamemnon through p. 35, line 1216 of email text file--to the point where Clytaemnestra comes back out of the palace and begins to speak to Cassandra.

Text-objective discussion: Jeannette Enderle

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

Tuesday, 17 June 2008: complete Agamemnon (458 BCE); begin Eugene O'Neill, The Homecoming from Mourning Becomes Electra (1931) (through Act One, pp. 257-283 of Three Plays textbook.)

Text-objective discussion (Cassandra in Agamemnon): Rebecca Watts

Film / video presentation: (option 2: romance or romantic comedy): Andrea Drabek

Thursday, 19 June 2008: complete The Homecoming (1931) (Acts 2-4, pp. 284 -317of Three Plays textbook.)

Text-objective discussion: Victoria Ortiz

Film / video presentation: (option 3: scene(s) from Mourning Becomes Electra): instructor

Monday, 23 June 2008: midterm exam

Both plays next week are the first parts of trilogies

Agamemnon is the first tragedy in The Oresteia by Aeschylus

main characters: King Agamemnon, Queen Clytaemnestra, her lover Aegisthus,

+ Agamemnon's children: Electra and Orestes--neither shows up in Agamemnon, but they take revenge for what happens

The Homecoming by O'Neill is the first tragedy in the trilogy Mourning Becomes Electra, which updates the Oresteia

Instead of Argos after the Trojan War,

New England after the American Civil War

Electra character (named Lavinia or Vinnie) shows up in Homecoming, has major "Electra Complex"

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.

Aristotle on Aeschylus:

IV. . . .Tragedy--as also Comedy--was at first mere improvisation. The one originated with the authors of the Dithyramb, the other with those of the phallic songs, which are still in use in many of our cities.

Tragedy advanced by slow degrees; each new element that showed itself was in turn developed.

Having passed through many changes, it found its natural form, and there it stopped.

Aeschylus first introduced a second actor; he diminished the importance of the Chorus, and assigned the leading part to the dialogue.

Sophocles raised the number of actors to three, and added scene-painting.

Question: How can you tell that Aeschylus is a generation before Sophocles?

What are the appeals of Aeschylus? What kind of poetic power or attraction may the audience feel toward Agamemnon?

+ preview comedy; Aristotle on learning

Other plot / character options

Have out narrative genre handout

Question appropriateness of teaching Oedipal Conflict to younger students

> fate vs. free will debate . . . intellectualizes, spiritualizes tragedy, OK

> de-emphasize nature of crime > formal resemblance to and difference from familiar crime stories

Oedipus as detective story?

critical thinking exercise:

compare / contrast Oedipus & detective story

conclusions on Oedipal Conflict

Freud describes as part of nature, inescapable

Examples keep showing up, many long before Freud

So probably some truth in it, however partial or partly comprehended

Yet always some automatic resistance:

All normal people learn to repress or resolve Oedipal conflicts, but they do so unconsciously, so being consciously reminded of them can cause disgust or outrage

(Plots or stories work mostly beneath the conscious level)

Discussion Tuesday showed another way to discuss:

Oedipus's family loves each other, discovers something wrong, but they love each other--not just monsters

Shift from individual to family dynamic

Aristotle on families

XIII.  [A perfect tragedy should] imitate actions which excite pity and fear, this being the distinctive mark of tragic imitation.  It follows plainly, in the first place, that the change of fortune presented must not be the spectacle of a virtuous man brought from prosperity to adversity: for this moves neither pity nor fear; it merely shocks us.  Nor, again, that of a bad man passing from adversity to prosperity: for nothing can be more alien to the spirit of tragedy; it possesses no single tragic quality; it neither satisfies the moral sense, nor calls forth pity or fear.  Nor, again, should the downfall of the utter villain be exhibited.  A plot of this kind would, doubtless, satisfy the moral sense, but it would inspire neither pity nor fear; for pity is aroused by unmerited misfortune, fear by the misfortune of a man like ourselves.  Such an event, therefore, will be neither pitiful nor terrible.  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. . . .

            [T]he best tragedies are founded on the story of a few houses--on the fortunes of Alcmaeon, Oedipus, Orestes, Meleager, Thyestes, Telephus, and those others who have done or suffered something terrible. . . . 

XIV.  Fear and pity may be aroused by spectacular means; but they may also result from the inner structure of the piece, which is the better way, and indicates a superior poet.  For the plot ought to be so constructed that, even without the aid of the eye, he who hears the tale told will thrill with horror and melt to pity at what takes place.  This is the impression we should receive from hearing the story of the Oedipus. . . .

            Let us then determine what are the circumstances which strike us as terrible or pitiful.

            Actions capable of this effect must happen between persons who are either friends or enemies or indifferent to one another.  In an enemy kills an enemy, there is nothing to excite pity either in the act or the intention--except so far as the suffering in itself is pitiful.  So again with indifferent persons.  But when the tragic incident occurs between those who are near or dear to one another--if, for example, a brother kills, or intends to kill, a brother, a son his father, a mother her son, a son his mother, or any other deed of the kind is done--these are the situations to be looked for by the poet.

Plus picture of family changes:

Ideal of family: cooperative, undisturbed by sexuality

Freudian picture of family: competition of forbidden desires

Tragedy's greatness: faces hard truths, works out problems or kinks

Hamlet Act 3, scene 4: in Gertrude's closet

Oedipal conflict

Questions:

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

What attractions / repulsions?

How resolve?

What know about it?

Electra complex?

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.

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