Tragedy

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Ros King (University of Southampton)

The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

Domains

Theatre

Dates

Date of occurrence -500

Places

Genres and Modes

Drama
Mode

Theory and Definition of Tragedy

The definition of a literary genre is always problematic. Description of specific examples often slides into prescription of what the genre should be like in a rather circular attempt to measure how well those examples adhere to an ideal. In the case of tragedy, this is because theoretical writing has often stemmed from a need to defend theatre from the charge that it is an inherently immoral activity. Such attacks have been commonplace for as long as theatre has existed, partly because theatre so obviously brings to life in the person of the actor a mere fiction (even a “lie”), or a shadow of reality (see Plato Republic 595c, 598d, 605c-d, 607a, 602 b); partly because this …

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2988 words

Citation: King, Ros. "Tragedy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1132, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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