Transcript The Six Elements of Tragedy:

What is Theatre?:
Aristotle’s Poetics (5th C. BCE)
& the Aristotelian Tradition
Aristotle’s view of theatre = rooted in
Greek terms “drama” & “theatre:
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drama < Grk. dromenon, “thing done”
• drama = “an imitation of an action,” says Aristotle

theatre < theatron, “seeing place”
• performance of the imitation for spectators
Aristotle’s 6 Elements of Tragedy (Drama)
 Plot:
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the “structure of events” through which action is
imitated/represented
Character:
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personof the drama or “moral bent” of the person
Thought:

“proof and refutation of moral choice”
Verbal Expression:

“conveyance of thought through language”
Music & Spectacle

sensuous, less artistic elements
Key Dramaturgical Concepts:
dramatic situation or “given circumstances”
 including setting
character objectives & superobjective
obstacles
dramatic tension or conflict
crisis
climax
reversal
recognition
The Aristotelian Tradition
= founded in Theory of Ritual Origin
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drama/theatre evolve from dithyramb,
(ritual choruses performed in praise of Dionysos
prior to 6th C. BCE )
theatre began when some participants stepped out
of chorus and became spectators of the ritual
the first actor, Thespis, stepped out from chorus to
perform individual role in dialogue with it
ritual action gradually evolved into theatrical
imitation of action
• purpose = more aesthetic than religious

Modern Dev. of Theory of Ritual Origin:
• The Cambridge School of Anthropology
(late 19th C.)
– The Cambridge Thesis
» primal ritual -> various religious rites ->
dramatic genres
– certain Greek tragedies follow form of the primal
ritual
• rise of Aesthetics as independent branch of
philosophy (began Germany, late 18th C.)
– What makes a work of art a work of art and not
something else?
Aesthetic(ist) Views of Theatre:
What makes a work of theatre essentially theatrical?

imitation of human action + live performance
(social or communal, ephemeral)
• CP. other literary forms, the visual arts, music
• CP. other dramatic media (film, television etc.)

theatre has the unique capacity to combine all of the arts in
a single work
• Richard Wagner: the Gesamtkunstwerk
Performance Studies
Theoretical Foundations:
 dramatism or dramaturgism
• Kenneth Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives
– analysis of human motives and actions in dramatic terms

role theory
• Erving Goffman, Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
– theatrical analysis of social interaction re: roles performed

structuralist anthropology
-> Richard Schechner, Performance Theory (1976)
– refutes Cambridge Thesis
– replaces vertical view of ritual <-> theatre across time
with horizontal view across society/societies
Schechner’s Dev. of Performance Studies
• recurrent performance genres:
– Ritual, Play, Games, Sports, Dance, Music,
Theatre
• Characteristics:
– rules/conventions: “scripts”
– special ordering of time and space
– objects have special value beyond an economic
one
– form of event remains constant although rules
may change
– dynamic of ‘efficacy’ <-> ‘entertainment’
Performance Studies
- The Philosophical Problem
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To what activities may the basic principles of the
performance genres not be applied?
Is life inherently theatrical or performative, OR
are performances specialized activites det apart
from life?
• “All the world is not a stage, but the ways in which it
isn’t are not always easy to specify.” (Goffman)