This Huge Stage: A New Poetics?

Abstract

Aristotle in The Poetics summarises his view of spectacle as follows: The spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet.¹ One cannot claim that the tragic is exclusive to performance. But, in anatomising tragedy into text, acting and stage effect, Aristotle creates the impression of performance as a loose association of allied arts, rather than as a single integrative art in its own right. Gerard Manley Hopkins pointed out that poetry only is when it is read. My case is that plays only are when they are performed.