Humanities 101 4 November 2013

Tragedy, Past and Present

Professor Matthew Gumpert

“Lessons learned from latest cyberbullying tragedy” “Tragic daycare car park death of 11 month old baby” “Syria’s Human Tragedy”“Boston Marathon Bombing: Lessons Learned from the Tragedy”“Lampedusa Tragedy Leaves 350 Feared Dead”“Family's death is one of many tragic stories to emerge from devastation of

Oklahoma tornado” Tragedy invades tropical paradise as twin storms leave at least 38 dead in

the Mexican resort city of Acapulco” “Uttarakhand tragedy: disaster preparedness at major pilgrimage sites”“Bohol Earthquake Tragedy”“The tragedy of the Turkish quake.”

A Selection of This Year’s “Tragedies”

“Tragedy at the Queen’s Salute”

“Members of the public looked on in horror yesterday as an army horse died on parade during a freak accident in London’s Hyde Park. The animal, called Murphy, was taking part in the Royal Gun Salute which takes place on June 2 each year to mark the coronation of the Queen. Soldiers from the King’s Troop were lining up when the horse tripped while galloping and his legs became entangled in the wheels of a gun wagon, which then dragged him across the grass.”

“It was a tragic accident, one of those split second things that happen and he went down straight away.”

Saint-Evremond, Of Tragedy, Ancient and Modern (1672)

“[I]n our tragedies, we neither introduce any villain who is not detected, nor any hero who does not cause himself to be admired. With us, few crimes escape unpunished, and few virtues go off unrewarded.”

“Erdoğan Defends Quake Relief Effort” (Hürriyet Daily News, 26 October 2011): “Erdoğan blamed the serious death toll on shoddy construction and the poor enforcement of construction standards . . . ‘It is high time for municipalities, contractors and inspectors alike to understand that negligence amounts to murder,’ he said.”

“Government to Bring Drastic Urban Measures” (Hürriyet Daily News, 28 October 2011): “The main opposition . . . lashed out at the government for placing the entire blame of Van’s high death toll on illegal construction, highlighting widespread local corruption that allegedly led to the licensing of sub-standard buildings.”

“Earthquake Brings Out Best and the Worst” (Hürriyet Daily News, 27 October 2011): “Given Van’s large Kurdish population, the knee-jerk reaction of many, as seen on various social media, was that this was “‘divine retribution against separatist Kurds for PKK attacks.’”

Aristotle, Poetics 1453a5-8

hamartia: a miscalculation or error committed by the hero out of ignorance; (archery, missing the mark)

Aristotle, Poetics 50a15

Tragedy is an imitation, not of people, but of actions carried out by people; “in the course of their actions they show what their characters are” (50a15).

Ersu Ablak, “God vs. Technology” (Hürriyet Daily News, 26 October 2011)

“In Turkey the belief that everything that happens to a person is God’s will is very important . . . When something bad happens it is God’s will, and we cannot go against it. There is only one way to have peace, and it is to accept that you cannot change fate . . . the municipality of Van does not feel responsible for the earthquake devastation.”

Aristotle, Poetics 49b20

The ideal plot, for Aristotle, is one which produces both “pity and fear” in the audience; it is “designed to bring about the catharsis of such emotions.”

Aristotle, Poetics

The ideal plot: 1.Moves “from good fortune to bad fortune” (53a12), 2.Includes sudden moments of “reversal” (peripeteia) (52a22). 3.The hero’s catastrophic change in fortune is accompanied by a sudden change in knowledge = anagnorisis, or recognition (52a29)

Aristotle, Poetics

The ideal tragic hero: “occupies the mean between saintliness and depravity”; “He is not extraordinary in virtue” yet “does not fall into bad fortune because of evil and wickedness” but “because of some error of the kind found in men of high reputation and good fortune, such as Oedipus and Thyestes and famous men of similar families” (53a5-8).

Elements of Tragic Perfomance I

dithyramb: a choral hymn or ode sung in honor of the god Dionysus.

City Dionysia: a municipal festival in honor of the god Dionysus

hupokrites: actor (literally, interpreter)

episode: spoken dialogue between choral odes

stichomythia: passages where characters are each given one line in succession

Aristotle, Poetics

“the best tragedies are written about a few houses, as on Alcmaeon, Oedipus, Orestes, Meleager, Thyestes, Telephus, and others on whom it came to suffer or to do terrible things” (53a12).

satyr-play: a comic play with a chorus composed of satyrs (creatures half-human and half-animal, associated with Dionysus)

choregoi: chorus-leaders, or producers, responsible for the funding and training of the choruses

Elements of Tragic Perfomance II

Physical Components of the Athenian Theater

stage: surface for actors slightly raised above the orchestra

orchestra: dancing-floor, reserved for the chorus skene: backdrop scenery which could serve to represent different locations ekkyklema: a platform wheeled in and out upon the stage mechane: crane designed to raise actors through the air

(see deus ex machina) theatron: seating for the audienceproedria: sests in the front row reserved for priests and

officials

Reconstruction of the Greek Theater

Aristotle, Poetics

• “So it is not in order to provide mimesis of character that the agents act; rather, their characters are included for the sake of their actions” (1450a20-25; trans. Halliwell)

• “Plot, then, is the first principle and, as it were, soul of tragedy, while character is secondary” (50b1-2).