THEA 2011 Lecture Notes - Dramatic Theory, Hamartia
20 Mar 2014
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Document Summary
A barbarian trojan stole the greek queen of sparta. The greeks unite against the barbarians and defeat them. They are distinguished from comedy by their solemn tone, not their endings. When agamemnon returns from the war 20 years later, clytemestra will kill him in revenge for iphigenia. Their son orestes will kill clytenestra to avenge his father. Aristotle"s poetics is a work of dramatic theory (ideas about what makes great theatre) It was written many decades after the great age of greek tragedy. We don"t know if the original dramatists and audiences wold have agreed with aristotle"s theories. But his ideas can help us to think about the structures of greek plays. Aristotle finds unity important: everything must be relevant to the plot. Aristotle finds cause and effect important, it should be clear how one thing leads to another. The original greek word is catharsis: the purging of unclean things.
