What is tragedy in literature: definition

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

A person's life is painted in different colors with many sometimes subtle shades. Everyone is familiar with such expressions as “bitterness of love”, “voluptuous death” or “taste of victory”. Each of them is a mixture of something elusively understandable and at the same time does not really exist. Such a literary and metaphorical reflection of the mass of feelings and experiences of the human soul makes us look at ordinary things in a new way, thereby making life richer and more colorful. Human passions, experiences and emotions throughout the development of civilization were the object of close attention from philosophers in the early centuries, then they were taken up by new researchers of the human soul - writers.

What is our life?.

Really what? A set of random events or a regular execution of predetermined plots once and for all? The joy of being or the bitterness of realizing one's insignificance? By and large, human life is a collection of feelings and sensations that color it in tones from the darkest to the lightest and mostlife-loving. Each of these shades is necessary for the completeness of perception and a sense of the integrity of the world. And literature gives a person exactly what he could never experience in real life. There would not be enough time, he alth, and much more.

It is thanks to literature that humanity has learned and is still learning worldview. With the help of literary genres, a person can distinguish sad from cheerful, base from sublime and good from evil. The dramatic beginning is always associated with feelings, passions. Whether it's uncontrollable laughter or barely contained sobs - all this is a real drama, only in its different forms.

Drama emphasizes truth

In pre-ancient Greek times, people somehow managed with ordinary legends, which spoke only about the heroism of certain epic characters. There was also a lyrical, purely personal beginning, which gave vent to inner experiences associated with mental and spiritual dissatisfaction, or, conversely, uncontrollable joy from experienced feelings.

The ancient Greeks combined these sources and created a drama (literally translated "action"), which contained both the heroic and lyrical characters of the literature of the past. The basis for the drama was the games dedicated to one or another god, which, in fact, are a kind of sacrifice in the hope of a future satisfying and fun life.

It was the dramatic genres - satyr drama, comedy and tragedy - that led to the fact that literature became closer to real life, reala person, a real, not a fictional society. And it was a breakthrough. After all, what is tragedy and comedy in ancient Greece? Originating from ritual games and glorifications in honor of Dionysus, tragedy and comedy soon became the main representatives of the theatrical and literary genres, revealing the most acute aspects of social life. Combining the real, serious part of human existence and the cheerful, “carnival” part, which was a herald of hope for a good outcome and the victory of light over dark, these genres became the starting point for the development of culture not only of the Greeks, but also of other peoples.

Tragic beginnings in literature

What is tragedy in literature? The definition of this term in a condensed form tells us that this is a work of a dramatic nature. It describes and closely examines the suffering of either the protagonist or members of his family, but always from the point of view of the moral principle. These sufferings must be sublime and highly moral. At its core, a tragedy is a highly moral work, forcing the reader to empathize with the protagonist and imbued with his worldview.

Now that it has become clear what a tragedy is, everyone can consciously analyze the literature that they had to read. Let us recall the tragedy of the Renaissance and recent times - the era of the Soviet people, which reflected in its entirety the essence of this genre.

Tragedy likegenre

What is tragedy as a genre of fiction? Unlike a purely literary form, the genre of tragedy implies a stage production and is characterized by a catastrophe ending. In it, a certain sharpness of actual relations, characterized by internal contradictions of the characters, is obligatory. It is marked by showing deep and real conflicts in a very intense and quite tense way. Moreover, to such an extent that these conflicts and the reality that gives rise to them become a kind of artistic meaning, often very pretentious.

stage of the 21st century.

High can't be grandiloquent

But despite all the pathos of the tragic events described in various works by world literary stars, it should be noted that he never crosses a certain line, beyond which the line between reality and fiction is erased. The atmosphere of trust in the author as the bearer of ideas that captivate the reader and captivate him disappears. That which shocks and kills sincerity cannot be highly moral. Therefore, high-quality literature and dramaturgy shy away from grandiloquence, thereby giving any tragic event, tragic hero an aura of martyrdom real, but not fictional.

Literature as a mirror of history

What is tragedy in literature? We have already given the definition. The theme of educating entire generations on the tragic events of past years is more important than ever for the development of future generations. Yes, not always what was typical, for example, for the era of the first centuries of Christianity and gave rise to coverage in dramatic works, helped, based on the tragedy of situations or the tragic fate of heroes, to resist evil, build a new society with new relationships, today will be in demand. But in the tragic characters of the past, one can still recognize the features and characters of many of our contemporaries. And is this not a reason to, referring to the tragedies of the same Sophocles and Aeschylus, continue to educate new heroes capable of resisting everything dark and dead and breaking the path to light, clean and he althy!