{"product_id":"aristotles-favorite-tragedy-gregory-l-scott-9780999704912","title":"Aristotle's Favorite Tragedy: Oedipus or Cresphontes?","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003ePoetics\u003c\/em\u003e is considered the foundation of Western dramatic and literary theory, and readers interpret Aristotle on the basis of Chapter 13 to claim that \u003cem\u003eOedipus\u003c\/em\u003e, with its pity, fear and horrible ending, is always the finest type of tragedy. Some specialists, however, discuss Aristotle also stating in Chapter 14 that the happily-ending plays like \u003cem\u003eCresphontes\u003c\/em\u003e are the finest, with the type of plays like \u003cem\u003eOedipus, \u003c\/em\u003e which involve an agent killing or committing great suffering to a family member and only recognizing the family connection afterwards, being second-best. This passage obviously creates a dilemma. No commentator has ever been able to resolve it to the satisfaction of the profession, and as a result \u003cem\u003eOedipus \u003c\/em\u003emaintains its stature. Indeed, the specialist Elizabeth Belfiore recently published (\"The Elements of Tragedy,\" in \u003cem\u003eA Companion to Aristotle\u003c\/em\u003e, ed. Georgios Anagnostopoulos, 2009) a defense of \u003cem\u003eOedipus a\u003c\/em\u003es the best play for Aristotle in spite of the explicit ranking of Chapter 14.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGregory Scott here demonstrates instead that Aristotle actually means what he says in Chapter 14: \u003cem\u003eTragōidia\u003c\/em\u003e, originally \"goat-song\" or the like, and typically translated misleadingly as \"tragedy,\" really involves for him serious drama primarily about good people, and Aristotle says three times in the book that it can end in misfortune \u003cem\u003eor in fortune\u003c\/em\u003e. Scott, building on his ground-breaking work from 2003, \"Purging the \u003cem\u003ePoetics\u003c\/em\u003e\" (\u003cem\u003eOxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy\u003c\/em\u003e) that is reprinted in his \u003cem\u003eAristotle on Dramatic Musical Composition: The Real Role of Literature, Catharsis, Music and Dance in the POETICS\u003c\/em\u003e (2nd ed., 2018), resolves the dilemma between Chapters 13 and 14 once and for all, showing that the latter half of Chapter 14 is about \u003cem\u003etragōidia \u003c\/em\u003ein general while the earlier text is only about one or two (or a mixture) of the subclasses of \u003cem\u003etragōidia \u003c\/em\u003eas given in Chapter 18 and rarely discussed by commentators: \"tragedy\" of suffering, complex \"tragedy,\" \"tragedy\" of character, and simple\/spectacular \"tragedy.\" The chapters are arbitrary divisions from the Renaissance and the texts must have both come from different original treatises of Aristotle and been assembled badly after his death, or the texts were part of a much larger work, now lost, in which the rest of the theory and the transitions from one topic to another were delineated.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn addition to resolving the perennial dilemma and shining a better light on Aristotle's notion of \"tragedy,\" Scott also explains why the best type of play like \u003cem\u003eCresphontes\u003c\/em\u003e is better than the second-best one, when they both have recognition and reversal, the conditions for the best kind of plot for Aristotle. With all of this in place, we can easily detect another dilemma that rarely gets discussed in the ranking of the four types of \"tragedy\" in Chapter 14: The third best type, which is not problematic in this context, involves an agent who knows someone is a family member and who kills the member anyway; we can easily deduce \u003cem\u003eMedea\u003c\/em\u003e is an example. However, all known commentators accept that Aristotle speaks of Sophocles' horribly-ending \u003cem\u003eAntigone\u003c\/em\u003e when he exemplifies the worst of the four types. Yet the reason Aristotle gives for the last-place finish is that \u003cem\u003eAntigone\u003c\/em\u003e is both \u003cem\u003eapathes\u003c\/em\u003e, \"without suffering,\" and \u003cem\u003emiaron\u003c\/em\u003e, \"shocking\" or \"revolting.\" Scott explains in detail not only that Aristotle must be speaking of Euripides' version of \u003cem\u003eAntigone\u003c\/em\u003e, which ends happily\u003cem\u003e, \u003c\/em\u003ebut why its last-place ranking results.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor Updates and Errata: www.epspress.com\/ArFavUpdates.html\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Gregory L. Scott\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0999704915\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780999704912\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Existenceps\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/15\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 104\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.33lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.22d","brand":"Gregory L. Scott","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48441682460927,"sku":"9780999704912","price":9.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_473e293c-745b-43d6-90c5-f501616a2631.jpg?v=1777192266","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/aristotles-favorite-tragedy-gregory-l-scott-9780999704912","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}