final exam assignment

LITR 4533 TRAGEDY  Final Exam Samples 2014 (final exam assignment) Essay 1: Overall Learning Experience

Chelsea Stansell

A Genre’s a Genre, No Matter How Small—Mimesis

            Although tragedy is recognized as the greatest genre in western literary history, there is much to be said for all of the wonderful categories that are beautifully dancing in the ever-changing eye of genre. When you read a book or go to the movies, you are introduced to a smorgasbord of evolving genres, and as you walk up and down the aisles of Barnes and Noble or excitedly wait outside to buy your ticket at the local Cinemark theatre, it is hard to miss the appetizing buffet that is genre.

Many times, classification can be seen as a negative concoction, used to simplify something, like when a bully in school refers to a smart child as a “nerd”; in reality, this classification makes sense to the bully because he understands that “nerd” means someone who is smart, and this phrase “nerd” summarizes that the other child is in fact, intelligent, eventually this phrase evolves, and gradually its meaning doesn’t have quite the same demarcation as before. When you read the genre categories at Half Price Books, I guarantee you won’t find a genre called “nerd” because books have other evolving classifications, ones that also change over time.

In class, we discussed the Dionysiac, and Apollotic state, and these terms blossomed in my perception, to help me better understand genre and its entirety. If in fact people change and grow with time, and genres evolve and develop with time, is it safe to say that people and genres grow together? Nietzsche says “The ecstasy of the Dionysiac state, abolishing the habitual barriers and boundaries of existence, actually contains, for its duration, a lethargic element into which all past personal experience is plunged”. A genre expands, because of the past literacies previously written in past classified genres, and we are simply here, because of our past experiences, ancestors, and stories. Would current literature be what it is today without the past works of Ovid? Would our current science fiction movies be what they are today, without the previous success of Star Wars? Absolutely not! People and genres develop over time, and eventually they no longer fit into simply one category, because as time passes, we find more and more classifications for the things we enjoy, we learn that the term “nerd” can’t describe a person and their entirety anymore.

I would like to focus my ideas around the genres of Science Fiction and fantasy, because I find these genres exciting and very relevant. Looking at Aristotle’s Poetics, he explains that tragedy is done through imitation, and in comparison, it can be said that other genres evolve through imitation. As we discussed in class, satires and parodies spring from original ideas, and original ideas were inspired from something else! We also discussed in class that kids learn through imitation, and can it be said that writers do the same? Imitation in fact travels through entire civilizations, cultures, societies, and social media! With blogs, movies, books, web quests, videos, vlogs and other sources of sharing can it be said that all genres spring from imitation?

            Jennifer Hamilton also discussed imitation in her paper, and I loved how she described how “Plato was very concerned with the nature of things. In The Republic, Plato questions the role art as well as literature plays and its relation to morality. He was afraid that if poets and writers were able to imitate reality so accurately that the audience was totally drawn in, then the poet had the power to mislead his readers into believing something that is not the truth”.  I found this very fascinating, because through imitation, things do seem more concrete, not because of their factual backgrounds, but simply because they are familiar to us. Once we read Oedipus in class, it was much easier for me to grasp other films which examined or encompassed the Oedipus complex, whereas without studying Oedipus, I really would not have been able to understand it. I feel that genres and life experiences are quite similar in the way that, once you experience them, you have a better understanding of what they really are like, and you begin to grow a larger vocabulary to describe them with, and I believe, that is how we develop genres. Genres and people both evolve and grow with time.

            To quote Dr.Seuss, “A person’s a person, no matter how small” I would like to compare this to the way in which we view genre, and say that genres exist! (A play on words of God is Dead). If you have ever attended a comic-palooza or comic-con, you will be introduced to an entire group of people, dressed up, supporting the entire genre of science fiction, and parts of historical satire. Everywhere you look, there are costumes, parodies, mimesis, and interpretation taking place, it is quite extraordinary! Authors and artists come out to sign the books and posters that these fans bring them, and together they can talk and dream about science fiction and in a way, they are able re-live it and appreciate it through this interaction with each other. It is sort of like a Disney theme park, to a young child, where the things, characters, costumes, and ideas that they love in a movie or book come to life, except… for adults! Comic con offers a type of mimesis that I find extraordinary, because it encapsulates so many different types of science fiction, and finds a peaceful coexistence under the same roof, in almost a celebratory manner. For instance, if someone had never seen Alice in Wonderland, or read the Spiderman comics, or saw the new Avengers movie that recently screened with the other summer blockbusters, would they still be able to appreciate them at a convention? Absolutely! Because genre not only helps us dream, but also helps us to be inspired to start reading somewhere! Genre is not simply a category, it is a theme with allure that signifies strength and fan base.

            Before taking this class, I really knew nothing about tragedy except for the fact that it was tragic. Since taking this course, my eyes have been opened to exactly how tragedy fits into other genres, and how they all overlap, and that not all tragedies are necessarily tragic! Spectacle has a large amount of importance when it comes to tragedy, and also action. In class, we learned about teaching transcendence, hamartia, hubris, and mimesis, and I believe that if I was teaching tragedy I would tie all these topics together with how they relate to the Hero’s Journey.  Most viewers (including my future students) enjoy a great story, so in order to get them interested in all these interesting texts, I will tie them in with genre, and have them brainstorm before we are introduced to the text or film clips, to peak their interest. Tragedy is often seen as fiction, and I think that this is helpful when teaching a younger generation of kids. I hope to allow them the creativity to interpret it as they will, and the facts to inspire them in the gruesome parts of history which we should never repeat. By teaching many genres, we are stating a fact! A genre is a genre, no matter how small.