Continuing on the Poetics from around 335 BCE, on the structure of plot (every element must be essential!), the moral status of the heroes, Homeric poetry, the difference between tragedy and history, and how Aristotle's formula may or may not apply to modern media. Wes maintains that tragedy does offer a unique, psychologically central benefit to us: Hanna Segal's "A Continue Reading …
Ep. 243: Aristotle’s “Poetics” on Art and Tragedy (Part One)
These probably-lecture-notes from around 335 BCE are still used in screenwriting classes today: Aristotle serves up a formula for what will most move us, derived from Sophocles's tragedies like Oedipus Rex. What is art? Aristotle says it's mimesis (imitation), and fiction (poetry) is imitation of human action in particular, in a manner that shows us what human nature is all Continue Reading …
Ep. 243: Aristotle’s “Poetics” on Art and Tragedy (Citizen Edition)
These probably-lecture-notes from around 335 BCE are still used in screenwriting classes today: Aristotle serves up a formula for what will most move us, derived from Sophocles's tragedies like Oedipus Rex. What is art? Aristotle says it's mimesis (imitation), and fiction (poetry) is imitation of human action in particular, in a manner that shows us what human nature is all Continue Reading …
Ep 119 Aftershow: Nietzsche (Featuring Greg Sadler)
Further hashing over of topics raised in our episode on Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy, your hosts Seth Paskin and Danny Lobell welcome Internet philosophy instructor extraordinaire Dr. Gregory B. Sadler, as well as David Buchanan, Erik Weissengruber, Tom Kirdas, Ken Presting, and Bill Coe. We had a wide-ranging discussion, covering theater, the arts, the sharing economy, Continue Reading …
Episode 119: Nietzsche on Tragedy and the Psychology of Art
On Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy (1872), which was his first book. What's the connection between art and society? Nietzsche thought that you could tell how vital or decadent a civilization was by its art, and said that ancient Greek tragedy (like Antigone) was so great because it was a perfect synthesis of something highly formal/orderly/beautiful with the Continue Reading …
Episode 119: Nietzsche on Tragedy and the Psychology of Art (Citizen Edition)
On Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy (1872), which was his first book. What's the connection between art and society? Nietzsche thought that you could tell how vital or decadent a civilization was by its art, and said that ancient Greek tragedy (like Antigone) was so great because it was a perfect synthesis of something highly formal/orderly/beautiful with the Continue Reading …
Topic for #119: Nietzsche on the Birth of Tragedy (and the Function of Good Art)
On 6/10/15, the full four were re-joined by drama guy John Castro to discuss Friedrich Nietzsche's first book, The Birth of Tragedy, originally published in 1872, though the 1886 version that we read (that's right in the thick of his later, more fun books) features an amusing, very self-critical introductory essay, "An Attempt at Self-Criticism," in which he dismisses the work Continue Reading …
Reading ‘Antigone’ with Hegel
Mark W. Roche offers a convenient overview of Hegel's remarks on tragedy in his essay "Introduction to Hegel’s Theory of Tragedy." Listeners to the PEL episodes in which Antigone was read and discussed who wish to uncover more meaning from the play will benefit from his arrangement of Hegel's remarks on Greek tragedy and its context into a theoretical schema for interpreting Continue Reading …
Episode 117: Discussing Sophocles’s “Antigone”
About that ancient Greek tragedy (441 BCE)... What can we learn from it? Are its literary tropes and ethical conflicts so far removed from us that the best we can do is marvel at it? Heck, no! Classic literature is great fodder for philosophical discussion, and the doings of the play can be fruitfully related to our modern troubles with ethics and the state. Mark, Wes, and Continue Reading …
Episode 117: Sophocles’s “Antigone” (Citizen Edition)
About that ancient Greek tragedy (441 BCE)... What can we learn from it? Are its literary tropes and ethical conflicts so far removed from us that the best we can do is marvel at it? Heck, no! Classic literature is great fodder for philosophical discussion, and the doings of the play can be fruitfully related to our modern troubles with ethics and the state. Mark, Wes, and Continue Reading …
“Antigone” Read by PEL with Lucy Lawless and Paul Provenza
An unrehearsed, dramatic read-through of the text we'll be discussing on ep. 117, a Greek tragedy written around 441 BCE, telling the myth of the cursed line of Oedipus, mother-f*#king king of Thebes. Featuring Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan, plus special guest starts Lucy Lawless as Antigone, Paul Provenza as Creon, Alice Sinclair as Ismene, and John Castro as Haimon. After the Continue Reading …
Not Ep 117: “Antigone” Full-Cast Audioplay (Citizen Edition)
As a study aid for our episode 117, here's an unrehearsed, dramatic read-through of the text we'll be discussing, a Greek tragedy written around 441 BCE, telling the myth of the cursed line of Oedipus, mother-f*#king king of Thebes. It features Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan, plus special guest starts Lucy Lawless as Antigone, Paul Provenza as Creon, Alice Sinclair as Ismene, and Continue Reading …
Topic for #117: Sophocles’s Play “Antigone”
On 5/24, Mark, Wes, and Dylan were joined by John Castro (a drama guy and old St. John's friend of Wes's) to discuss Antigone, a play written by the ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles in around 441 BCE. Prior to that, we brought back the PEL Players (listen to our past productions here and here) to perform an unrehearsed reading through the script, again featuring the wonderful Continue Reading …