Paper #1: Staging Tragedy

From Spiegelman's Maus, a modern tragedy

“Tragedy can be defined as a spectacle under the permanent observation of a deity.” But how can we be sure? How do we know?” (Poole, Tragedy, Ch.2)

For your first paper, I want you to use Poole’s book to help you examine a modern artistic tragedy (a film, a book, a piece of music, a game, etc.) from the last forty years or so. Nothing from the ancient world or a time where the gods and poetry was taken for granted. Whatever you choose, try to examine what makes it a tragedy according to Poole’s definition, and how it is staged for the entertainment (or education) of the audience. Without the use of gods and poetry, how do we know this is tragic? Would Aristotle and Plato agree? And most importantly, why do you find it tragic and meaningful?

As you write, consider SOME of these ideas from Poole’s book:

• Would everyone see this as a tragedy, or just some people? Is it universal or particular?
• What concept of “god” or judgment seems to inform the work?
• Who’s to blame? God or fate? Or individuals? Is the audience themselves implicated?
• Is the tragedy deepened by not knowing the plot? Does it lose power with repetition?
• What story or message is it trying to tell us about ‘real life’?
• Does the tragedy run the risk of emulation? Would people try to replicate it?
• What ‘language’ does the work use? Is it elevated? Or realistic?
• What powers of the past haunt the present in the work? Are there “ghosts” at work?
• How do we witness the pain of the main characters? Is their pain cathartic?

REQUIREMENTS

• Use Poole’s book to help you examine and frame your discussion of the tragedy. Quote from Poole so we can see the connections between his ideas and your tragic work.
• Be specific: examine a passage or two—or a moment or two—in your work so we can see the connections. Don’t talk about the entire work generally and don’t summarize the entire plot. Give us a basic sense of the work and then analyze it.
• Document according to MLA format like so: In Poole’s Tragedy: A Very Short Introduction, he writes that, “one answer is that it’s way of honouring and allaying ghosts collective as well as personal” (35).
• DUE IN-CLASS THURSDAY, JANUARY 30^th