Abstract:
The quest for the origins of tragedy has a long history, and its emphasis has tended to be on form rather than concept, with good reason since for the ancient writers the stem .,pa-y- conveyed a primary denotation of dramatic performance. Yet Aristotle in the Poetics is far more concerned with the concept than the form. In discussing the nature of tragedy, he is at pains to describe the best kind of tragic figure and the best kind of plot-structure in general terms.
