1988 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Tragic Theories and Tragic Practice --An Analytic Comparison between Greed and Elizabethan Tragedy--
| Project/Area Number |
62510257
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Research Field |
英語・英文学(アメリカ語･アメリカ文学)
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Kwansei Gakuin University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
SASAYAMA Takashi Kwansei Gakuin University Professor of English, 医学部, 教授 (90046904)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
1987 – 1988
|
| Keywords | Tragedy / Greek tragedy / Elizabethan tragedy / Aristotle / Catharsis / 演劇理論 |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
This is an attempt to analyse in concrete terms the philosophical and aesthetic contents of representative theories of tragedy in Europe, and, by classifying and arranging them in due order, draw a skeleton map of theoretic cogitations on tragedy since the Renaissance. The present investigator also intends to test the validity of various important conceptual frameworks of these tragic theories by applying them to certain specific Rreek and Elizabethan tragedies, and at the same time make clear some basic similarities as well as differences between these two types of tragic writing in Europe. Among chief points of reference in relation to which the theories of tragedy were subjected to critical analysis were--- (1) 'action' and 'character' as defined in Aristotle's Poetics (2) 'catharsis' and 'tragic pleasure' (3) the form and meaning of 'suffering' (4) the possibility of tragedy in the Christian belief (5) tragic happenings in daily life and tragedy as an art form. The present project has proved that Greek and Elizabethan tragedy can most profitably be compared with each other in their respective relationship to gragic theories in the following aspects: (1) agon (conflict) (which can be spared in Greek tragedy, while it is indispensable in Elizabethan tragedy) (2) the individual and fate (whose interrelationship Greek tragedy endeavoured to explore, while Elizabethan tragedy tried to exemplify it) (3) the acquisition of wisdom and emotional catharsis on the audience's part (4) ambivalence of humanistic 'meaning' and absurdist 'nonsense' in the reception experience.
|
