Greek Tragedy and Comedy
Greek Tragedy and Comedy examines Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes as performance texts. The exam tests dramatic structure, conventions, character, chorus, and the critical vocabulary of Aristotle's Poetics.
Core rules
- Tragic structure: prologos, parodos, episodes, stasima, exodos. Comedy includes the parabasis, agon, and fantasy plots.
- Performance matters: masks, open-air theatre, skene, ekkyklema, mechane, and the chorus's role shape meaning.
- Aristotle's terms-hamartia, peripeteia, anagnorisis-are analytical tools, not rules every play obeys.
Worked example
In Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus, the messenger's report and Oedipus' recognition form a peripeteia and anagnorisis. Reasoning: the same information reverses Oedipus' fortune and reveals his identity. The chorus's reactions guide the audience's emotional and ethical response. A strong answer tracks how dramatic irony-the audience knows before Oedipus-produces pity and fear rather than merely summarizing the plot.
Traps
- Translating hamartia as 'fatal flaw' without qualification; it can mean an error or mistake.
- Treating Aristotle as prescriptive rather than descriptive.
- Confusing a character's view with the playwright's.
- Ignoring the chorus, staging, or audience context.
- Reading Aristophanes only for jokes, not for civic satire.