CLCV 2500 Lecture 16: Class 16 (Tragedy)

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Classical Civilization
• Course: CLCV 2500
• Professor: Yukai Li

Document Summary

Exam will cover more of the second half of the semester. Is tragedy still an active genre: going by a classical definition, in which tragedy is something where decent people struggle and then succumb, ex. Are humans free to choose the course of their lives: ex. Oedipus could not escape the fate that the oracle told him. The house of atreus and the cycle of destruction: the revolution put the concept of freedom in people"s thoughts. Is oedipus a hero: confrontation between family and state (individual and community), ex. The part on tragedy is the one that survived: what is tragedy, a form of poetry, poetry is a form of imitation. Imitation/mimesis is a broad category of human activity, about creating a copy of a thing. Imitation also happens outside of art, like when a child copies art: reasons why imitation is important, 1) by nature man imitates, 2) it is pleasurable.