The Knowledge of the Reader: Explorations in the Inevitability of Tragedy

• Main Authors: Laura Hsiao-Li Chang, 張曉莉
• Other Authors: James Barton Rollins
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/69092170220485611558

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 外國語文研究所 === 89 === Tragedy and the idea of tragic experience have been among the most persistent topics among literary critics since the fifth century B.C. But what is it for a tragedy to be tragic? In this thesis I focus on how the tragic sense is accomplished, which, I believe, is based on inevitability─a sense resulting from the distinction of the knowledge between the readers and that of the characters, aiding the fact that readers have a better understanding of the tragic ending of the characters than do the characters themselves. I begin by providing the relation of tragedy and philosophy. I argue that tragedy involves inevitability and that inevitability is related to a perspective, which, therefore, falls into the domain of the theory of knowledge. I then proceed to offer a discussion of the two leading views about knowledge: internalism and externalism. The interaction between internalism and externalism provides an analogy about two perspectives on inevitability. With the help of the analogy, I define tragedy as a story in which the protagonist’s fate is inevitable, which is assumed to be a matter of knowledge, and the readers of a tragedy will often possess knowledge different from that of the characters. An application of my definition of tragedy to a specific example, namely Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, is introduced. Having defined tragedy as requiring two ingredients – the reader’s knowledge and the tragic character’s lack of knowledge that the tragic event is inevitable – I demonstrate that these two ingredients are indeed essential to tragedy by the use of Mill’s Methods of Agreement and Difference. Ultimately, this thesis is an attempt to offer a plausible definition of tragedy. I have applied the methodology of philosophy – including epistemology, possible worlds, and a thought experiment – within literary theory.