Harmlessness clause

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The term “harmlessness clause” describes a principle of theater studies and literary studies .

definition

To answer the genre question in drama theory , i.e. to distinguish between comedy and tragedy , the harmlessness clause can be used as a yardstick for differentiation . “As is well known, the genre of a text is determined in such a way that typical formal aspects of a traditional piece are compared with others. If they do match, it can be assumed that the pieces being compared belong to the same genre. ” The innocuousness clause thus represents a formal aspect that corresponds to the comedy genre and, in addition to the rule poetics of the class clause and height of fall, is also an unwritten convention.

application

The harmlessness clause implies that the viewer has the certainty that nothing will happen that is in any way irreversible. Aristotle already knew: “What we laugh at must be painless and harmless.” This is why the Aristotelian innocuousness clause is often used. Thanks to this established convention, “in the final analysis, the comic body is immortal. His immortality gives us pleasure. "

Adhering to this principle is intended to ensure that the ridiculousness that happens to the protagonists of the comedy neither leads to persistent pain that extends beyond the end of the drama nor to irreversible ruin of the injured party. An incident that causes suffering in the tragic, that is, is harmful, therefore only represents folly in the comic, so it must be harmless “if we are to laugh at it.” The end must indeed be harmless for the comic figure, but “by no means positive advantageous ” , which in comedy often leads to “ making the wise appear foolish until the castle in the air of folly collapses ” . An example of this is The Imaginary Invalid by Molière , because herein is the protagonist though naive and the doctor to be totally incompetent, but whereas the patient suffers at the same time only imaginary diseases and is completely healthy basically - the game with his naivete ultimately harmless to him.

Examples

Other examples of comedies that use the harmlessness clause:

  • Amphitryon according to Kleist - who is ultimately given a divine son, which proves the harmlessness and the world reconciliation is heralded. For reconciliation, Jupiter said the words to Amphitryon beforehand: "Let your black sorrow escape now, And open your heart to triumph."

The innocuousness clause in other art forms

The principle of the innocuousness clause can also be transferred to other literary genres. The harmlessness of a story - that is, a world reconciliation - is shown, for example, in the rewarding of the good and the punishment of the bad in fairy tales , when the good characters do not die in the end but marry. In the art form of film, too, one can find the practiced harmlessness in the form of a happy ending .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Lehnardt, "Qaddish. Studies on the creation and reception of a rabbinic prayer," Mohr Siebeck GmbH & Co. KG, Tübingen, 2002, p.64.
  2. ^ Friedrich Georg Jünger , "About the comic", publisher: Klostermann, Frankfurt (1948), p. 24
  3. ↑ Peter von Matt, “The Last Laugh. On the final scene in comedy ”in: Ralf Simon (ed.),“ Theory of Comedy - Poetics of Comedy ”, AISTHESIS Study Book 2, Aisthesis, Bielefeld, 2001, p. 129.
  4. ↑ The tragedy, on the other hand, inevitably ends sadly and often with the death of one or more people involved.
  5. ^ Meyers Konversationslexikon, author collective, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig and Vienna, fourth edition, 1885-1892, p. 793.
  6. ^ Johann Christoph Adelung, "Ueber den Deutschen Styl", Volumes 2-3, Christian Friedrich Voss and Son, Berlin, 1785, p. 214.
  7. ^ Meyers Konversationslexikon, author collective, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig and Vienna, fourth edition, 1885-1892, p. 991.
  8. ^ Meyers Konversationslexikon, author collective, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig and Vienna, fourth edition, 1885-1892, p. 991.
  9. ^ Heinricht von Kleist, Amphitryon. A comedy based on Molière, in: Heinrich von Kleist, Complete Works, Droemersche Verlagsanstalt Th. Knaur Nachf., Munich and Zurich, 1961, pp. 149–208, last act.
  10. ↑ “If we shadows offend you, think only this - and then we are well defended. You all just slumbered here and looked at night faces of your own brain poetry. ” (See e-text A Midsummer Night's Dream in German translation by Project Gutenberg ).
  11. ↑ This conclusion can often be found in fairy tales with the closing phrase "if they did not die, then ..." .