Tapping the Wellsprings of Action: Aristotle’s Birth of Tragedy as a Mimesis of Praxis

Tapping the Wellsprings of Action: Aristotle鈥檚 Birth of Tragedy as a Mimesis of Praxis

Collections: Philosophy, Critiques & Commentary

Genre: NONFICTION > Academic Text

Tapping the Wellsprings of Action: Aristotle鈥檚 Birth of Tragedy as a Mimesis of Praxis

Katie Kretler

Role: Author

Recipient of an Excellence in Teaching Award by the University of Chicago.

This essay offers an interpretation of Aristotle’s account of the birth of tragedy as a mimesis of poetic praxis. The workings of this passage emerge when read in connection with ring composition in Homeric speeches, and further unfold through a comparison with “The Shield of Achilles” and with an ode from Euripides’ Heracles. Aristotle appears to draw upon a traditional pattern enacting cyclical rebirth or revitalization. It is suggested that his puzzling insistence on “one complete action” in plot is bound up with moment-to-moment performance. The poetics of Aristotle’s account suggest a pedagogy of mimesis.