On Aristole’s Concept Of Tragedy

Aristotle’s Poetics is the first systematic work of literature theory in the West. Tragedy is not only one of the central concept of Poetics, but also an important reference object of literature and aesthetics research in China. It is necessary for us to give the Aristotle’s concept of tragedy an ontological orientation.In this study, comparative linguistics, historical linguistics and classical philology methods are used. The basis of the literature of this dissertation is Aristotle’s Poetics in classical Greek text, seven commentaries of Poetics in Latin from 1600 to 1900, and several classical Greek, classical Greek-Latin, classical Greek-German, classical Greek-English, Latin, Latin-German, Sanskrit-German dictionaries from 1773 up till now. By perusing the text, the dissertation attempts to give Aristotle’s concept of tragedy an ontological orientation, i.e. what is tragedy in the eyes of Aristotle.The first chapter is the etymological analysis of τ(?)αγωδΙα (tragedy). In accordance with the order from western languages to Chinese, from classical languages to modern languages, the chapter tries to clarify the relatively constant and changed part of meaning of τ(?)αγωδΙα from ancient times till now and in the process of evolution and spread from the West to the East.The second chapter is the analysis of τ(?)αγωδΙα from a macro and micro perspective. From the macro perspective, the chapter tries to find other aesthetic concepts related to the concept of tragedy by analyzing the distribution of τ(?)αγωδΙα in Poetics according to section and theme. From the micro perspective, the chapter tries to conduct a comprehensive analysis of all τ(?)αγωδΙα and its derivatives in the classical Greek text of Poetics.The third chapter is the comparative analysis of τ(?)αγωδΙα (tragedy) with related aesthetic concept in Poetics. These concepts include:πΟΙεω(creation),με(?)Οζ(element, part), μυ(?)Οζ (story, plot),μΙμηΟΙζ(imitation, representation by means of art), (?)ωμωδΙα(comedy) and επΟπΟΠα (epic). First, to clarify the meaning of these concepts themselves, and then analyze their commonality and personality with τ(?)αγωδΙα(tragedy).Chapter four analyzes the concentrated and scattered discussion of the concept of tragedy in Poetics of classical Greek text firstly, and then analyzes the characteristics of the ideal and best tragedy in the eyes of Aristotle.In classical Greek text of Aristotle’s Poetics, the concept of τ(?)αγωδΙα can be divided into two levels. One is summarized through the abstract of tragedies of actual existence, any work that is consistent with the concept can be called a tragedy. This concept can be simply expressed as:τ(?)αγωδΙα is a complicated, sympathetic, and awe inspiring literary work or stage performance with plot, or refers to the behavior of creating the literary work above or conducting the stage performance above. The other is the Aristotelian concept of the ideal best tragedy. It can also be simply expressed as:the best tragedy is the tragedy with the nature and function of tragedy but can achieve the artistic effect of Homer.