When and where did Aristotle live?
• Born in Stagirus in 384BC
• Died in Chalcis in 322BC
• Lived in Stagirus > Mytilene > Athens > Chalcis
• Greek
• Oldest recorded system of storytelling’
Where were Aristotle’s Poetics?
• What Aristotle calls “poetry”
• Attempts to explain poetry, and divides it into 3 genres
o Tragedy
o Comedy
o Epic Verse
• Poetics focuses mainly on tragedy and his examination of Tragedy.
• Then Tragedy is a common topic due to religious reasons. It is to remind man that man is not God.
Definition of Greek tragedy?
• Tragedy, then, is 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.
o Imitation of action
• Creating something that that looks real out of something unreal
o Certain magnitude
• It can’t be something that is too big or too small
o Language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament
• Words that are spoken out loud. People need to speak.
o Form of action, not narrative
• Shows action and not narration. Not someone on stage and telling the story.
Example of movies or play that follows Aristotle’s definition of tragedy?
• The Passion Of Christ.
o Tragedy defines as “a great person who experiences a reversal of fortune”
o and that is very true on the life depicted for Jesus Christ, Jesus know as the son of God, is known to have great powers. He could heal the sick and bring life to those who suffered.
o This is however arguable, as often, for a tragedy to happen, someone must be flawed.
• Fantastic Four; Rise Of The Silver Surfer.
o Tragedy defines as a change of fortune from bad to good.
Aristotle’s 6 Parts Of Tragedies (In order of importance);
• Plot
o The main content of the story
o Different from the story
o Plot are the arrangements of the story that we see in the movie itself.
• Character
o Protagonist (main character) should be renowned and wealthy/ successful, in order for his luck to change from good to bad.
• Imagine this, how much can we take away from a rich and renowned person. How much to make him fall.
o The character commits and error/ sin that turns his happy life around and leads to pity and fear
o The character is then subjected to either purification or purgation in the end.
o Have a character that we are able to make him fall =)
• Thought
o Found when something is proved to be or not to be or a general maxim is enunciated.
o An idea. The writer is having a thought, and there is an overall purpose in why you are writing the story.
• A plan/ structure that we have
• Having an objective
o Speeches should be able to reveal a character.
• Diction
o Words that the character says.
• Song/ Melody
o Brings audience into the mood of it.
o Rhythm to their voice/ sense of music
• Spectacle
o A visual sense of the whole story.
• Eg, digital effects
o Parts of the visual effects, but shouldn’t be the most important.
Cause and Effect Chain
• Makes up the plot
• When planning, playwright should have the “effects” in mind because he is writing on the “cause”.
• When writing on climax, both “cause” and “effect” must not be neglected to archive organic unity
• “Cause” should be focused on the resolution of the play.
• Brings incidents, or tragedies, closely related with one another, with no necessary intervention from outside the compass of the play.
• Eg:
o The bombing of Johor (Effect) will be the “cause” when the Singapore Arm Forces attack Johor (Effect) which will in turn becomes a “Cause” for another effect.
How can a good plot create a “unity of action”?
• Events happening in a story must be running smoothly
• Action that lead to each other must remain undisturbed
• Try to avoid coincidental thing unless there were to choice.
• Everything in the plot should belong to the same chain
Episodic Plot (What Aristotle really didn’t like)
• Quite literally where things happen in episodes
• Storyline has Highs and Lulls in excitement value
o No twists.
o Generally proceeding in the same General Direction.
Difference between A Simple and a Complex Plot
• A Simple plot would be one that involves a basic storyline
o Only a change of fortune
o Its not a tragedy, its just something sad
• A Complex Plot
o Has a reversal of intention “peripertcia” and recognition “anagnorisis” connected with the catastrophe
o Not only having something bad happening to her, but also her realizing/ discovering what caused it.
3 Act Structure
• Beginning
o Introduces the character
o An incident with a conflict that leads to middle plot.
• Middle
o Rising action. Built up of the conflict
o Climax. The highest point of conflict
• End
o Anagnorisis
o Resolution
o Character learns from what happens
Perepeteia
• Term describing a change in plot, a reversal.
• The plot tiwst
Katharsis
• Form of emotional cleansing.
• It’s the audience that feels this.
• Great sense of emotional release.
o Eg, when you are so tensed up with the emotion of the characters and you get and eventual release of emotions.
Mimesis
• Imitation.
• Recreating life in a fake form.
Anagnorisis
• When the character know and learns from the events.
Hamartia
• Tragic flaw. The thing that we are describing that makes the character goes thorough the downfall.
