Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0010. Friday, 6 January, 1995.
(1) From: Patricia Gourlay <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 05 Jan 1995 17:39:35 -0400 (EDT)
Subj: Re: SHK 6.0005 Re: Tragic "Flaw" -- Hamartia
(2) From: E. L. Epstein <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 06 Jan 1995 00:03:13 EDT
Subj: RE: SHK 6.0007 Re: Education; Dreams (Prepositions)
(3) From: Terence Hawkes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 6 Jan 1995 10:47:05 GMT
Subj: Re: Elizabethan literacy
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From: Patricia Gourlay <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 05 Jan 1995 17:39:35 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: 6.0005 Re: Tragic "Flaw" -- Hamartia
Comment: Re: SHK 6.0005 Re: Tragic "Flaw" -- Hamartia
All this discussion of fate and hamartia gets tangled in the usual Aristotelian
flypaper, except for Piers Lewis' very sensible look at real tragedies for
guidance. For a good discussion of the way Aristotle and Greek tragedy both
have been misrepresented, see Richmond Lattimore's essay in the Tulane Review
back in '53 and Brian Vickers'TOWARDS GREEK TRAGEDY. Whatever Aristotle meant
by hamartia, it does derive from the verb "hamartano" (to fall short ofthe
target) and refers to an action rather than a moral quality. Aristotle never
uses the word "hubris"; it means "an outrageous act of violence" (such as
rape, or the destruction of a conquered city) and never in classical Greek to a
moral flaw. Aristotle doesn't talk about fate or irony or nemesis either,
because he is interested in tragedy's action and its effect, not its meaning.
"Irony" in Aristotle refers only to a pretense of ignorance as used by
Socrates. What critical vocabulary he had was his own invention. It's good to
remember that all the Greek tragedies we have were written before Aristotle
and that Shakespeare's acquaintance with him would have been minimal, even if
he were inclined to follow anybody's model. A great deal of nonsense about
Greek tragedy (Butcher, Kitto, Frye, Sewell) gets passed on because Greek study
is out of fashion, and scholars are humbled by their inability to read the
original. But there are good translations out there now, and this is a good
occasion to urge everybody to take a fresh look at all the extant Greek
tragedies. LIke Shakespeare's, they resist any simple formulas. Every one is
different. As for fate, there are different terms (Moira for "share", Anangke
for "necessity) in Greek but they all refer to what is beyond human control. In
Greek tragedy, they provide the context in which the protagonists make their
choices. The terms are in general descriptive rather than causative. Romantic
and unclassical as they are, Romeo and Juliet are still closer to Greek tragedy
than to medieval or Roman in this respect. As Piers Lewis suggests, they act
within the given context of a world inimical to youth, to love, etc. where the
jaws of darkness do devour it up. They go for it anyway. The consequence
invites from the audience not necessarily the response "Tsk,tsk" but for some
at least "What a way to go!"
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From: E. L. Epstein <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 06 Jan 1995 00:03:13 EDT
Subject: 6.0007 Re: Education; Dreams (Prepositions)
Comment: RE: SHK 6.0007 Re: Education; Dreams (Prepositions)
In regard to quibbling over prepositions--I can only say again, can we claim to
love Shakespeare, if we do not care what he said? E.L.Epstein
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From: Terence Hawkes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 6 Jan 1995 10:47:05 GMT
Subject: Re: Elizabethan literacy
Dave Kathman makes a number of good points, but the term 'illiterate' drags in
too many of the prejudices of a highly literate late 20th century culture. How
about 'nonliterate'? How about 'pre-literate'? Cf. the work of Walter Ong (he
of the Numinous Prose).
T. Hawkes