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Ep. 243: Aristotle’s “Poetics” on Art and Tragedy (Part Two)

May 18, 2020 by Mark Linsenmayer 7 Comments

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)

May 11, 2020 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

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)

May 11, 2020 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

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)

August 6, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

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

July 6, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 14 Comments

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)

July 5, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 3 Comments

Friedrich Niezsche

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)

July 4, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 4 Comments

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

July 3, 2015 by Erik Weissengruber 2 Comments

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”

June 15, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 3 Comments

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)

June 13, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

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

June 8, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 10 Comments

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)

June 7, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

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”

June 6, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 5 Comments

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 …

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