Anagnorisis

Anagnorisis For the black/death metal band, see Anagnorisis (band). For the German musician, see Anagnorisis (Sariola).

learned the truth, or when Iphigeneia in Tauris realizes in time that the strangers she is to sacrifice are her brother and his friend, and refrains from sacrificing them. ArisAnagnorisis (/ˌænəɡˈnɒrɨsɨs/; Ancient Greek: ἀναγνώ- totle considered these complex plots superior to simple plots without anagnorisis or peripeteia, such as when ρισις) is a moment in a play or other work when a character makes a critical discovery. Anagnorisis originally Medea resolves to kill her children, knowing they are her meant recognition in its Greek context, not only of a children, and does so. person but also of what that person stood for. Anag- Another prominent example of anagnorisis in tragedy is norisis was the hero's sudden awareness of a real sit- in Aeschylus's “The Choephoroi” ("Libation Bearers") uation, the realisation of things as they stood, and fi- when Electra recognizes her brother, Orestes, after he has nally, the hero’s insight into a relationship with an often returned to Argos from his exile, at the grave of their father, Agamemnon, who had been murdered at the hands antagonistic character in Aristotelian tragedy.[1] of Clytemnestra, their mother. Electra convinces herself that Orestes is her brother with three pieces of evidence: a lock of Orestes's hair on the grave, his footprints next 1 Tragedy to the grave, and a piece of weaving which she embroidered herself. The footprints and the hair are identical to In his Poetics, as part of his discussion of peripeteia, Arisher own. Electra's awareness is of her brother’s presence, totle defined anagnorisis as “a change from ignorance to who is the one person who can help her by avenging the knowledge, producing love or hate between the persons death of their father.[2] destined by the poet for good or bad fortune” (1452a). It is often discussed along with Aristotle’s concept of catharsis.

2 Comedy

The section of Aristotle’s Poetics dealing with comedy did not survive, but many critics also discuss recognition in comedies. A standard plot of the New Comedy was the final revelation, by birth tokens, that the heroine was of respectable birth and so suitable for the hero to marry. This was often brought about by the machinations of the tricky slave. This plot appears in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, where a recognition scene in the final act reveals that Perdita is a king’s daughter rather than a shepherdess, and so suitable for her prince lover.[3]

3 Literature and modern usage

“Lear and Cordelia” by Ford Madox Brown: Lear, driven out by his older daughter and rescued by his youngest, realizes their true characters.

3.1 Mystery

In the Aristotelian definition of tragedy, it was the discovery of one’s own identity or true character (e.g. Cordelia, Edgar, Edmund, etc. in Shakespeare's King Lear) or of someone else’s identity or true nature (e.g. Lear’s children, Gloucester’s children) by the tragic hero.

The earliest use of anagnorisis in a murder mystery was in "The Three Apples", a classical Arabian Nights tale, where the device is employed to great effect in its twist ending.[4] The protagonist of the story, Ja'far ibn Yahya, is ordered by Harun al-Rashid to find the culprit behind a murder mystery within three days or else be executed. It is only after the deadline has passed, and as he prepares to be executed, that he discovers that the culprit was his own slave all along.[5][6]

Aristotle was the first writer to discuss the uses of anagnorisis, with peripeteia caused by it. He considered it the mark of a superior tragedy, as when Oedipus killed his father and married his mother in ignorance, and later 1

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REFERENCES

4 See also • Aristotle • Back-story • Denouement • Epiphany • Peripeteia • Tragedy

5 References [1] Northrop Frye, “Myth, Fiction, And Displacement” p 25 Fables of Identity: Studies in Poetic Mythology, ISBN 015-629730-2 [2] Aeschylus, and Robert Lowell. The Oresteia of Aeschylus. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1978. Poster for a performance of The Comedy of Errors: When the twins, confused with each other throughout the play, recognize each other’s existence, the play reaches its happy ending.

3.2

Modern usage

Anagnorisis, however, is not limited to classical or Elizabethan sources. Author and lecturer Ivan Pintor Iranzo points out that contemporary auteur M. Night Shyamalan uses similar revelations in The Sixth Sense, in which child psychologist Malcolm Crowe successfully treats a child who is having visions of dead people, only to realize at the close of the film that Crowe himself is dead, as well as in Unbreakable, in which the character of David realizes that he survived a train crash that killed the other passengers, due to a supernatural power.[7] Another well known example of anagnorisis from popular culture is the revelation that Darth Vader is the father of Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back. An extensive account of the history and application of anagnorisis is provided by Terence Cave in his book Recognitions. [8] A humorous definition is included in 'The Banner: mockheroic verse epic, Part 1: Sid' by Robin Gordon: In any moment of such crisis / one thinks, of course, of those devices / which Aristotle said were needed / in any poem. We have heeded / Aristotle, and our plot, / (beginning, middle, end), has got / complications too, and error / fit to rouse cathartic terror, / protagonists, antagonists, / peripiteia, turns and twists. / The poet’s comments form the choruses, / but now it’s time for anagnorisis. / When Oedipus sees the bird he’s bedded / is his own father’s lawful wedded / wife, in fact she is his mother, / or Iphigenia finds her brother, / Discovery or Recognition / brings the plot to its fruition.

[3] Northrop Frye, “Recognition in The Winter’s Tale" p 1089 Fables of Identity: Studies in Poetic Mythology, ISBN 0-15-629730-2 [4] http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Three_ Apples [5] Pinault, David (1992), Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights, Brill Publishers, pp. 95–6, ISBN 90-0409530-6 [6] Marzolph, Ulrich (2006), The Arabian Nights Reader, Wayne State University Press, pp. 241–2, ISBN 0-81433259-5 [7] Ivan Pintor Iranzo. The naked and the dead. The Representation of the dead and the construction of the other in contemporary cinema: The case of M. Night Shyamalan, No. 4, 2005 [8] Recognitions: A Study in Poetics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.

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Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1

Text

• Anagnorisis Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anagnorisis?oldid=643755189 Contributors: Dieter Simon, Haukurth, AnonMoos, Jason Quinn, Kusunose, Kesac, Girolamo Savonarola, Ganymead, Ary29, M1ss1ontomars2k4, BlueNight, Carlon, Kwamikagami, Uucp, Ghirlandajo, Alexrudd, Angr, SDC, Quiddity, FlaBot, YurikBot, Pip2andahalf, Rocketgoat, Dialectric, SmackBot, Jagged 85, Chairman S., Commander Keane bot, Bluebot, Greatgavini, Cyrusc, Orannis, Caracas1830, Cydebot, Goldfritha, In Defense of the Artist, AntiVandalBot, Arx Fortis, Deflective, Lawikitejana, Serpent656, Ya ya ya ya ya ya, R'n'B, Filll, Athaenara, Sam metal, Synthebot, Deconstructhis, Otherfates, DionysosProteus, Mike Klaassen, Mild Bill Hiccup, Trixi72, Addbot, Ettrig, Luckas-bot, Legobot II, II MusLiM HyBRiD II, GrouchoBot, Omnipaedista, Lotje, RjwilmsiBot, Chags20, Oppollo, Helpful Pixie Bot, Reatlas, Knuckleweed, OilandTempura and Anonymous: 47

6.2

Images

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Content license

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