Tragedy of Fate [Schicksalstragödie]

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Gerhart Hoffmeister (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Domains

Theatre

Dates

Date of occurrence -600-1958

Places

Germany (Location)
Ancient Greece (Involved)

Genres and Modes

Tragedy

Resources

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Recommended Reading

Since ancient Greece the concept of fate has played a key role in the lives of people, in the history of ideas, and in tragedies that portray the clash between external powers and the will of individual protagonists. To prove that humans are not in control, the Greeks used four different terms to signify various aspects of fate:

ananke

(necessity),

heimarmene

(causation),

moira

(the assigned lot), and

tyche

(chance; see Goethe, “Urworte. Orphisch” [“Primal Words. Orphic”, 1820]). Accordingly, the connotation of “fate” (Latin

fatum

) varies within a spectrum that reaches from a religious power via a chain of mechanical causation to a lot assigned at birth. Fate can constrain the Olympian gods (see Goethe's poem “Prometheus”, 1774) but also be decreed by them. It may be…

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2551 words

Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Tragedy of Fate [Schicksalstragödie]". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 April 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5812, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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