Aristotle’s Tragic Model

Shakespeare and Aristotle

In this course, Professor Patrick Gray (University of Austin) thinks about Shakespearean tragedy through the lens of Aristotle’s Poetics, looking in particular at the Aristotelian concepts of ‘catharsis’, ‘hamartia’, ‘anagnorisis’ and ‘peripeteia’. In the first lecture, we introduce Aristotle’s Poetics and think about how key Aristotelian concepts such as ‘hamartia’ and ‘anagnorisis’ might be a useful tool when approaching Shakespearean tragedy. In the second lecture, we think about the different ways that moral conflict is presented in classical and Shakesperean tragedy, before turning in the third lecture to the figure of the tragic protagonist and the concept of ‘hamartia’. In the fourth lecture, we explore the concept of ‘anagnorisis’ and ask whether any of Shakespeare’s tragic protagonists ever have a true moment of anagnorisis, before turning in the fifth lecture to ask why scholars are so determined to apply concepts from Aristotle’s Poetics to Shakespearean tragedy at all. In the sixth lecture, we think about the concept of ‘peripeteia’, before turning in the seventh lecture to recap what has bene said about each of the four Aristotelian concepts covered in the course: ‘catharsis’, ‘hamartia’, ‘anagnorisis’ and ‘peripeteia’.

Aristotle’s Tragic Model

In this lecture we introduce Aristotle’s Poetics and think about how key Aristotelian concepts such as ‘hamartia’ and ‘anagnorisis’ might be a useful tool when approaching Shakespearean tragedy. As we move through the lecture, we consider: (i) Aristotle’s Poetics as a response to Plato’s aesthetics, and especially his view that drama should be forbidden in a well-ordered society; (ii) he possible meanings of Aristotle’s concept of ‘catharsis’, including ‘purgation’ (in a medical sense), ‘purification’ (in a religious sense) and ‘clarification’ (in an intellectual sense); (iii) Martha Nussbaum’s understanding of ‘catharsis’ as ‘clarification’; and (iv) the distinction between Greek tragedy, in which characters are at the mercy of forces beyond their control, and Shakespearean tragedy, in which characters are largely in control of their own destinies, including being free to make choices that lead to their own destruction.