Vocabulario especializado de teatro:

Anagnorisis is the recognition by the tragic hero of some

truth about his or her identity or actions that accompanies the

reversal of the situation in the plot, the peripeteia. Oedipus's

realization that he is, in fact, his father's murderer and his

mother's lover is an example of anagnorisis.

catharsis

Aristotle describes catharsis as the purging of the emotions

of pity and fear that are aroused in the viewer of a tragedy.

Debate continues about what Aristotle actually means by

catharsis, but the concept is linked to the positive social

function of tragedy. See the discussion by Hans-Georg

Gadamer in the Overview to this resource for one

perspective on what catharsis means.

character

One of the six components of tragedy, character refers to

the human beings represented in the drama. Aristotle

stresses that the central aim of tragedy is not to depict

human personalities, but rather to represent human action.

Character is second in importance to plot in Aristotle's

hierarchical organization of these elements; representation of

character should always enhance the plot.

complex plot

A complex plot, in contrast to a simple plot, includes a

reversal of the dramatic situation (peripeteia) and/or

recognition (anagnorisis). Complex plots unfold through an

internal logic and causality; they are not simply strings of

episodes

complication

In the trajectory of a tragic plot, the complicationextends

from the beginning of the play to the moment of peripeteia

and/or anagnorisis–the turning point of the plot. The

denouement includes this turning point and extends to the

conclusion of the play.

drama

In the poetics, drama is contrasted with narrative in the

distinction between the epic and the tragedy. Through the

speech and gestures of actors, drama represents actions by

placing them before the audience's eyes.

deus ex machina

Deus ex machina refers to the intervention of a divinity in

the action of a drama to resolve a conflict and, often, to bring

the action to a conclusion. Its literal sense, "god from the

machine," comes from ancient stagecraft, in which an actor

playing the deity would be physically lowered by a crane-like

mechanism into the stage area. We sometimes use the term

to refer to a miraculous (or just improbable) external

influence that brings about the resolution of a problem or

conflict. Aristotle recommends against using this technique to

resolve the plots of tragedies, suggesting that its proper

place is for staging commentaries by the gods that lie outside

the actual action of the drama.

epic

Exemplified throughout the Poetics by the works of Homer,

the epic is a poetic genre that uses narrative to convey its

plot to the audience. The meter proper to the epic is the

hexameter. The epic poet, Aristotle observes, can either

speak in his or her own words, or take on the voices of

characters in order to advance the unfolding of the plot.

fear

Fear is one of the emotions aroused in the audience of a

tragedy. This fear results, Aristotle seems to suggest, when

the audience members understand that they, as human beings

bound by universal laws, are subject to the same fate that

befalls the tragic hero. Fear, along with pity, is "purged" in

the process of catharsis.

genre

Genres are categories into which kinds of literary material

are organized. The genres Aristotle discusses include the

epic, the tragedy, the comedy, dithyrambic poetry, and

phallic songs. Genres are often divided into complex

sub-categories. For example, the novel is a large genre of

narrative fiction; within the category of the novel, the

detective novel is a sub-genre, while the "hard-boiled"

detective novel is a sub-genre of the detective novel.

hamartia

The Greek word that describes what many people refer to as

the "tragic flaw" of the hero of Greek tragedy, hamartia has

a complex meaning which includes "sin," "error," "trespass,"

and "missing the mark" (as in archery–missing the

bull's-eye). The "mistake" of the hero has an integral place in

the plot of the tragedy. The logic of the hero's descent into

misfortune is determined by the nature of his or her particular

kind of hamartia.

mimesis

All poetry, Aristotle argues, is imitation or mimesis.

Aristotle imagines that poetry springs from a basic human

delight in mimicry. Humans learn through imitating and take

pleasure in looking at imitations of the perceived world. The

mimetic dimension of the poetic arts is, in Aristotle, always

representational; he does not seem to recognize anything like

the twentieth-century concept of "abstract" art.

pathos

Pathos describes the powerful emotions of pity and fear

aroused in the audience of a tragedy. Aristotle names pathos

as one of the components of the tragic plot, along with

anagnorisis and peripeteia.

peripeteia

The reversal of the situation in the plot of a tragedy is the

peripeteia. According to Aristotle, the change of fortune

for the hero should be an event that occurs contrary to the

audience's expectations and that is therefore surprising, but

that nonetheless appears as a necessary outcome of the

preceding actions.

plot

The most important of the six components of the tragedy,

the plot is the representation of human action. Plots can be

simple or complex; Aristotle clearly indicates that complex

plots are required for successful tragedies. The plot must be

unified, clearly displaying a beginning, a middle, and an end,

and must be of sufficient length to fully represent the course

of actions but not so long that the audience loses attention

and interest.

telos

Telos is the "goal" or endpoint of the plot of a tragedy or

epic. The plot embodies the telos of the drama or the epic; to

grasp the plot is to understand both the unity and the purpose

of the actions that are represented.

tragedy

Aristotle defines tragedy in Book VI as "an imitation of an

action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude;

in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament,

the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in

the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear

effecting the proper purgation of these emotions" (51).

This definition crystallizes much of Aristotle's arguments

throughout the Poetics:

a tragedy is first and foremost the representation of

human action;

the actions represented have serious, often dire

consequences and the characters represented are of

elevated social status;

the plot is a complete, coherent whole, lasting long

enough to represent adequately the reversal of the

hero's fortune;

the language in which a tragedy is composed employs

tropes and other heightened or unusual uses of

speech and a mixture of different poetic meters;

the mode of imitation in a tragedy is drama as

opposed to narrative;

the tragedy arouses pity and fear in the viewer and

brings about catharsis.

unities

Literary critics and poets following Aristotle took some of the

remarks in the Poetics quite literally. In particular, Aristotle's

observations in Book V that tragedies should generally not

represent actions lasting much longer than a single revolution

of the sun were institutionalized in Renaissance theories of

drama as the doctrine of the unities. Many dramatists of

this period believed that a drama could only represent events

taking place in a single day and in a single place. The plays

of William Shakespeare were for this reason scandalous for

some critics of his time.

denouement

In the trajectory of a tragic plot, the denouementfollows

the complication, beginning with an including the moment of

peripeteia and/or anagnorisis–the turning point of the

plot–and extending to the conclusion of the play.