Implementation of Aristotle’s principles of dramatic genre in Sophocles’ tragedy “Antigone”

Abstract

The paper analyses the tragedy “Antigone” by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles, which was written in 442 BC. It is believed that the topic of tragedy was first touched upon by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle in his treatise “Poetics” in 335 BC, where he identifies the criteria characteristic of this genre. In this regard, it is interesting to note that Sophocles was not a contemporary of Aristotle, he was a century older than the philosopher, therefore, Sophocles’ work could not meet the criteria of the genre put forward by Aristotle. Thus, the study is novel in that it represents the first attempt to analyse the tragedy “Antigone”, written a hundred years before the appearance of Aristotle’s treatise “Poetics”, in accordance with the criteria of the genre that Aristotle highlighted in his work. The author also tried to draw a parallel between the two ancient authors, who were not contemporaries. The study expands our understanding of the genre of tragedy. The aim of the study is to show how the genre existed in practical and theoretical aspects in different historical periods, to find direct proof of the theory in practice. As a result of analysing Sophocles’ tragedy “Antigone”, it has been found that “Antigone” is a whole, complete action, since it has the beginning, the middle and the end; this work is represented by a number of consecutive events, which indicates the presence of a composition of events in it, moreover, the tragedy is an action with a complicated plot, where a change occurs from the moment of obtaining knowledge; the characters of “Antigone” realise the presence of thoughts in the dramatic work in their statements; the heroes’ personalities are determined by the nature of their actions; the author of the tragedy raises the problem of total loneliness; his tragic hero is vicious, on the one hand, on the other hand, he is decent, moral, endowed with willpower.

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About this article

Publication history

• Received: March 19, 2023.
• Published: May 17, 2023.

Keywords

• Аристотель
• трагедия
• литературный жанр
• герой
• Софокл
• Aristotle
• tragedy
• literary genre
• hero
• Sophocles

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