The Poetics

Towards the beginning of the school year, my class was assigned these sort of on-going activities all related to Greek theater. Although there were really only two, Sophocles's Oedipus the King and Aristotle's The Poetics, it has taken quite a time to thoroughly go through and discuss the many factors at work. Just yesterday we began our evaluation of Aristotle's The Poetics and how the entire manifesto came into being. While I was reading through the document, I never even realized that Aristotle and Sophocles were from completely different time periods. It was only when Greek theater was truly dead that Aristotle attempted to revive the entire concept. In doing so, Aristotle based his outline of the Greek tragedy solely on the story of Oedipus (which he apparently felt was the epitome of tragedy). With so little resources of Greek theater available, even today, it makes you wonder whether Aristotle was really right in his thinking. Ever since his Poetics were published, they have essentially been treated as the Holy Grail of Greek theater, thus dictating anything that will ever come after it. Although I do agree upon some of Aristotle's basics conducive of a tragedy, I'm not completely sold on the whole "no subplots" idea. I almost feel as though stories need to have some sort of context or digression to truly make it whole. But that is neither here nor there.

Today in class we also began watching Tyrone Guthrie's famous production of Oedipus Rex. The movie really helped us to put in context the entire knowledge of Greek theater that we have been accumulating over the past weeks. By that time we had read about Greek theater, experimented with choral roles, and just about everything else besides actually viewing some authentic Greek theater. Although this production of Oedipus Rex is technically not authentic, it's pretty darn close. Everything from masks to the style of acting were preserved uncannily well. From what we've watched so far, I can assuredly say that it's truly not like anything we've done before. Actions, sounds, and emotions are just so over the top, it almost feels uncomfortable to be watching the actors at certain points. But that's the Greeks for you, right?