Lamentations on the absence of tragic texts in the twentieth century center on the untenability of Aristotelian parameters of tragedy within a modern context. These parameters include the immediacy of the dramatic experience as a vehicle for identification with the audience and a hero fully capable of realizing the tragic truth of his existence. Curiously restrained by formal requirements postulated in antiquity, the majority of critics have neglected that modern tragedy may have shed structures no longer culturally relevant while maintaining the essence of the tragic vision. The novel has been largely ignored despite its being perfectly suited for a contemporary communication of the tragic vision. The skepticism shattering the belief that our respective destinies can be fully embodied by another is no obstacle for tragedy in the novel. Through a narrating choric figure acting as mediating consciousness, the novel provides a direct link between reader, hero, and the tragic experience. The very act of narration also sheds light on the creation of the tragic text, extending this link to the tragedian himself. The result is a three-pronged identification, (with the hero, choric figure, tragedian), through which the reader is confronted with the multifarious truths laid bare in the text. These revelations, along with a deliberate absence of closure, compel the reader into the same unending quest to complete the tragic cycle--an experience akin to the catharsis of old.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.60622 |
| Date | January 1991 |
| Creators | Gauthier, Tim |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of English.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001259442, proquestno: AAIMM72237, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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