http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ztomasze/argax
©2006 by Z. Tomaszewski.
In the fourth century B.C.E., Aristotle laid the foundations of narrative theory in his Poetics. Although he focuses primarily on describing the nature of tragic drama, he does refer to other art forms such as epic poetry, comedy, dithyrambic poetry, music, dancing, and painting. He claims that all these forms of "imitation" differ from each other in three defining respects: their objects, medium, and manner (which is sometimes called mode).
The object "imitated" in drama is "men in action" (Aristotle 1961, Chapter I). Tragedy and comedy can be distinguished by the character of the men represented and the nature of the action. The men can be portrayed as "better" or "worse" than they are in real life; the action may or may not be serious, unified, and complete. But the important aspect is "men in action".
Fergusson, in his introduction (Aristotle 1961), explains that our understanding of Aristotle's action should be in light of his writings on ethics. Action here means praxis--an active, rational "movement of spirit", directed outwards. It is action arising from thought, focused to some end. The motivation of a character is essential to this sort of action.
Aristotle thus explains that the three objects of dramatic action are Plot (that is, the "arrangement of the incidents"), and the Character and Thought of its agents (Chapter VI).
Art can represent objects through a variety of different media--color and form, or the voice, or rhythm and harmony (Chapter I). Tragedy, specifically, is conveyed through Diction and Song (Chapter VI). That is, actors speak and sing in order to convey the action to the spectators.
Within the same medium, there may be different manners of presentation. For instance, in poetry conveyed through the media of speech and song, the events can either be narrated through a personality, narrated by the poet himself, or enacted as if the characters were "living and moving before us" (Chapter III). This is a distinction between epic and tragedy--epic is narrated, while tragedy is enacted. Aristotle calls this enactment of tragedy the Spectacle (Chapter VI).
Aristotle lists these six parts in terms of their order of importance to tragedy: Plot, Character, Thought, Diction, Song, Spectacle (Chapter VI). The first three are the objects--we understand the Plot of the action in part because we understand the Character and Thought of the characters. The action is presented through the media of Diction and Song, Diction being the more important for Aristotle. He lists the manner of Spectacle as the least essential to judging tragedy. Though the special effects of the stage may have a certain emotional appeal, they are the least connected with the art of poetry: "For the power of tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors" (Chapter VI).
|
Argax Project : Dissertation :
A Rough Draft Node http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ztomasze/argax |
|
Last Edited: 08 Apr 2011 ©2006 by Z. Tomaszewski. |