Generic Expectations and the Interpretation of Attic Tragedy

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter considers the usefulness of cognitive work on genre for the literary interpretation of Attic tragedy. It explores how the disappointment and fulfilment of generic expectations can lead audiences and readers to a better understanding of specific plays. First it discusses the notion of ‘genre’, and the work of contemporary cognitivists, especially their emphasis on categorization, and their tendency to elide historical and cultural specificity. Then it discusses audiences’ emotional and intellectual responses to Attic tragedy, with particular focus on the interpretative challenges of Euripides’ Alcestis and Orestes and Sophocles’ Philoctetes. It concludes with a brief assessment of cognitive approaches to categorization and responses from audiences and scholars to the disappointment or fulfilment of expectations as complementary pathways into both the interpretation of Attic tragedy as a genre and of specific plays, and with speculation on how collaboration between scientists and humanists might offer a productive way forward.