Seminar activity 1: Reflecting on the Poetics

Focus on sections 4.1-4.3 and 7.1-7.2 of the Poetics. In teams, try to answer one or more of the following questions (these will be allocated):

1. Why should plot be more important than character? (See section 4.3)
2. Why should the protagonists in tragedy be ‘distinguished’ (7.2), i.e. of high social rank?
3. When discussing hamartia, Aristotle refers to ‘a serious error’ (p. 7.2; my italics). This implies that an agent can make mistakes without necessarily falling into hamartia. What do you think makes the difference between hamartia and a more trivial kind of mistake?
4. Aristotle claims that a complex plot (i.e. one that involves peripeteia and/or anagnorisis) makes for a better tragedy than a simple plot. Why might this be the case?
5. From a dramatist’s perspective, what are the benefits of taking subject-matter from mythology, rather than inventing something original?
6. Why should an audience find a tragedy pleasurable?