TRAGEDIA ȘI COMEDIA, ÎNTRE ARISTOTEL ȘI OSCAR WILDE
TRAGEDY AND COMEDY - BETWEEN ARISTOTLE AND OSCAR WILDE

Summary/Abstract: Seen as two opposite literary forms some millennia back, tragedy and comedy cannot be perceived today as a dichotomy, but as two different sides, facets of the same reality. If for Aristotle, tragedy was characterised by seriousness and dignity, stirring fear and pity in the audience and, finally, catharsis, for the same Greek philosopher, comedy was utterly different(in Aristotle’s view, the entire literature was mimesis,i.e. imitation of life). Later on, these two genres became indistinguishably mingled, as literature evolved according to the social evolution of the society. This kind of sophistication also emerged from the idea, expressed, among others, by Oscar Wilde, that literature was not an imitation of life (mimesis), but merely life was an imitation of art. However, a distinction still exists today: while tragic literary elements can address a broad, universal audience, comic elements still depend on various national and cultural approaches. Consequently, this is the main idea which the present paper aims to discuss. While irony and black comedy are linked to a specific cultural context without which the whole effect of the comic is sometimes destroyed or, at least, altered, tragedy is based upon elements universally understandable, such as death or suffering. The comic elementsdepend more on language. A satire, a parody, a pamphlet contain in themselves a sort of limitation, a kind of familiarity between the reader and a precise context, linguistic, social, political, ideological a. s. o. Luckily enough, in our times, there is a fragile line between comedy and tragedy, much thinnerthanit could have ever been imagined by a human being in Aristotle`s time.

• Details
• Contents