Dramatic Action in Greek Tragedy and Noh

Reading with and beyond Aristotle

By (author) Mae J. Smethurst

Publication date:

21 February 2013

Length of book:

126 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739172421

This book explores the ramifications of understanding the similarities and differences between the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles and realistic Japanese noh. First, it looks at the relationship of Aristotle’s definition of tragedy to the tragedies he favored. Next, his definition is applied to realistic noh, in order to show how they do and do not conform to his definition. In the third and fourth chapters, the focus moves to those junctures in the dramas that Aristotle considered crucial to a complex plot - recognitions and sudden reversals -, and shows how they are presented in performance. Chapter 3 examines the climactic moments of realistic noh and demonstrates that it is at precisely these moments that a third actor becomes involved in the dialogue or that an actor in various ways steps out of character. Chapter 4 explores how plays by Euripides and Sophocles deal with critical turns in the plot, as Aristotle defined it. It is not by an actor stepping out of character, but by the playwright’s involvement of the third actor in the dialogue. The argument of this book reveals a similar symbiosis between plot and performance in both dramatic forms.By looking at noh through the lens of Aristotle and two Greek tragedies that he favored, the book uncovers first an Aristotelian plot structure in realistic noh and the relationship between the crucial points in the plot and its performance; and on the Greek side, looking at the tragedies through the lens of noh suggests a hitherto unnoticed relationship between the structure of the tragedies and their performance, that is, the involvement of the third actor at the climactic moments of the plot. This observation helps to account for Aristotle’s view that tragedy be limited to three actors.

Introduction: Toward a Comparative Study of the Action in Greek Tragedy and Noh
Chapter 1: Aristotle on Tragedy: A Reading of “Iphigenia in Tauris” and “Oedipus the King”
Chapter 2: The Tragic Action of Realistic Noh: Reading Noh with and beyond Aristotle
Chapter 3: Climactic Moments: The Third Person in Realistic Noh
Chapter 4: Climactic Moments: The Third Actor in Greek Tragedy
Coda: Plot, Performance, and Creative Distances
Appendix: Passages from Realistic Noh
Bibliography
Index

Historically, Greek tragedy and Japanese Noh have nothing to do with each other, having developed in different eras and geographical regions. Yet both theatrical traditions tell stories of human joy and suffering through characters and action, and they evoke emotional response in audiences past and present. Noh plays are most familiar as mugen or "spirit noh," in which a wandering soul recounts an event in his or her life that is the cause of longing or torment. There are also genzai or "realistic noh," which deal with living people and present action. Some of the best-loved plays in the repertoire are Genzai Noh, Funa Benkei, Sumidagawa, and Ataka. Smethurst, author of The Artistry of Aeschylus and Zeami uses Aristotle's views on tragedy to analyze the plot structure in a group of lesser-known genzai noh texts, comparing them to examples of tragedies by Sophocles and Euripides. She examines the writers' use of action in these noh plays and their incorporation of third-person speech at the plot climax, features that correspond to Aristotle's principle that a tragedy can have only three actors. Smethurst's study of noh texts is uniquely illuminating for scholars of tragedy. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty.