Tragedy: Difference between revisions

'''Tragedy''' (from the {{lang-grc-gre|[[wiktionary:τραγῳδία|τραγῳδία]]}}, ''tragōidia''{{Refn | group = "lower-alpha" | [[Middle English]] ''tragedie'' < [[Middle French]] ''tragedie'' < [[Latin]] ''tragoedia'' < {{lang-grc|[[wiktionary:τραγῳδία|τραγῳδία]]}}, ''tragōidia''<ref>{{Citation |last=Klein |first=E |title=A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language |volume=II L–Z |page=1637 |year=1967 |contribution=Tragedy |publisher=Elsevier |mode=cs1}}</ref>}}) is a genre of [[drama]] based on human [[suffering]] and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowfulsorrowfulGGTYIROEFACDNJSKI.FHUYEGEJFNksl,k;oefrijhonfkjdfiot5uhiocdkjsf;fiwaehtyu<ref></ref> events that befall a [[tragic hero|main character]].<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}}