Editing Tragedy (section)

{{Short description|Genre of drama based on human suffering}}
{{about|the genre of drama|the loss of life|Tragedy (event)|other uses}}
{{redirect2|Tragedian|Tragic|other uses|Tragedian (disambiguation)|and|Tragic (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2016}}
{{Literature}}
A '''tragedy''' is a genre of [[drama]] based on human [[suffering]] and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a [[tragic hero|main character]] or cast of characters.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Tragedy |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/tragedy-literature |last=Conversi |first=Leonard W. |date=2019 |language=en}}</ref> Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying [[catharsis]], or a "pain [that] awakens pleasure,” for the audience.{{Sfn | Banham | 1998 | p = 1118}}{{Sfn | Nietzsche | 1999 | p = 21 | loc = §2 | ps =: 'two-fold mood[…] the strange mixture and duality in the effects of the [[Dionysus|Dionysiac]] [[Cult of Dionysus|enthusiasts]], that phenomenon whereby pain awakens pleasure while rejoicing wrings cries of agony from the breast. From highest joy there comes a cry of horror or a yearning lament at some irredeemable loss. In those Greek festivals there erupts what one might call a [[Sentimentality|sentimental]] tendency in nature, as if it had cause to sigh over its [[Sparagmos|dismemberment]] into [[Individuation|individuals]]'.}} While many cultures have developed forms that provoke this [[paradox]]ical response, the term ''tragedy'' often refers to a specific [[Poetic tradition|tradition]] of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of [[Western culture|Western civilization]].{{Sfn | Banham | 1998 | p = 1118}}{{Sfn | Williams | 1966 | pp = 14–16}} That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous, yet the term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect of [[cultural identity]] and historical continuity—"the [[Classical Athens|Greeks]] and the [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethans]], in one cultural form; [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenes]] and Christians, in a common activity," as [[Raymond Williams]] puts it.{{Sfn | Williams | 1966 | p = 16}}
[[File:Heer_Ranjha_painting.jpg|thumb|The classical Punjabi tragedy of ''[[Heer Ranjha]]'', one of the four classic tragedies of [[Punjabi folklore]]; the tragedy's epic form by [[Waris Shah]] is regarded as one of the greatest pieces of [[Punjabi literature]]]]
Originating in the [[theatre of ancient Greece]] 2500 years ago, where only a fraction of the works of [[Aeschylus]], [[Sophocles]] and [[Euripides]] survive, as well as many fragments from other poets, and the later Roman tragedies of [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]]; through its singular articulations in the works of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], [[Lope de Vega]], [[Jean Racine]], and [[Friedrich Schiller]] to the more recent [[Naturalism (theatre)|naturalistic]] tragedy of [[Henrik Ibsen]] and [[August Strindberg]]; [[Natyaguru]] [[Nurul Momen]]'s [[Nemesis]]' tragic vengeance & [[Samuel Beckett]]'s [[Modernism|modernist]] meditations on death, loss and suffering; [[Heiner Müller]] [[Postmodernism|postmodernist]] reworkings of the tragic canon, tragedy has remained an important site of cultural experimentation, negotiation, struggle, and change.{{Sfn | Williams | 1966 | pp = 13–84}}{{Sfn | Taxidou | 2004 | pp = 193–209}} A long line of [[philosophers]]—which includes [[Plato]], [[Aristotle]], [[Augustine of Hippo|Saint Augustine]], [[Voltaire]], [[David Hume|Hume]], [[Denis Diderot|Diderot]], [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegel]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]], [[Søren Kierkegaard|Kierkegaard]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]], [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]], [[Walter Benjamin|Benjamin]],{{Sfn | Benjamin | 1998}} [[Albert Camus|Camus]], [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan]], and [[Gilles Deleuze|Deleuze]]—have analysed, speculated upon, and criticised the genre.{{Sfn | Felski | 2008 | p = 1}}{{Sfn | Dukore | 1974 | ps =: primary material.}}{{Sfn | Carlson | 1993 | ps =: analysis.}}

In the wake of Aristotle's ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]'' (335 BCE), tragedy has been used to make genre distinctions, whether at the scale of poetry in general (where the tragic divides against [[Epic poetry|epic]] and [[Lyric poetry|lyric]]) or at the scale of the drama (where tragedy is opposed to [[Comedy (drama)|comedy]]). In the [[Modernity|modern]] era, tragedy has also been defined against drama, [[melodrama]], [[Tragicomedy|the tragicomic]], and [[epic theatre]].{{Sfn | Carlson | 1993 | ps =: analysis.}}{{Sfn | Pfister | 1988}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elam |first=Keir |title=The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama |date=1980 |publisher=Methuen |isbn=9780416720501}}</ref> Drama, in the narrow sense, cuts across the traditional division between comedy and tragedy in an anti- or a-[[Genre|generic]] [[deterritorialization]] from the [[Nineteenth century theatre|mid-19th century]] onwards. Both [[Bertolt Brecht]] and [[Augusto Boal]] define their epic theatre projects ([[non-Aristotelian drama]] and [[Theatre of the Oppressed]], respectively) against models of tragedy. Taxidou, however, reads epic theatre as an incorporation of tragic functions and its treatments of mourning and speculation.{{Sfn | Taxidou | 2004 | pp = 193–209}}