Shakespeare versus Aristotle: Anagnorisis, Repentance, and Acknowledgment

Gray, Patrick

doi:10.1215/10829636-7279648

Shakespeare versus Aristotle: Anagnorisis, Repentance, and Acknowledgment

Gray, Patrick

Authors

Patrick Gray

Abstract

Efforts to describe Shakespeare’s tragedies and place them within the history of the genre have been long misled by dubious assumptions about Shakespeare’s secularism dating back to the influence of German Romanticism. The use of concepts drawn from Aristotle’s Poetics has been compromised, as well, by patterns of misinterpretation, reflecting the influence of Renaissance Protestants such as Melanchthon who sought to reconcile classical tragedy with Christianity. Hamartia as Aristotle uses the word does not mean sin. Anagnorisis does not mean repentance. Using these terms as euphemisms for these Christian concepts has proved attractive, nonetheless, because it allows critics to avoid recognizing Shakespeare’s indebtedness to the moral vision of Christianity. As in medieval Biblical drama, tragedy for Shakespeare is the failure of a sinner to repent. As in the case of confession, Shakespeare represents repentance as a process which requires engagement with other people: an intersubjective transformation Stanley Cavell calls “acknowledgment.”

Citation

Gray, P. (2019). Shakespeare versus Aristotle: Anagnorisis, Repentance, and Acknowledgment. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 49(1), 85-111. https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-7279648

Journal Article Type	Article
Online Publication Date	Jan 1, 2019
Publication Date	Jan 1, 2019
Deposit Date	Sep 28, 2017
Publicly Available Date	Jan 23, 2018
Journal	Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Print ISSN	1082-9636
Electronic ISSN	1527-8263
Publisher	Duke University Press
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	49
Issue	1
Pages	85-111
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-7279648
Publisher URL	https://read.dukeupress.edu/jmems