Tragicomedy

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

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  • The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

Tragicomedy is a slippery genre. As well as incorporating elements from tragedy and comedy, tragicomedy has often been crossed (and sometimes confused) with pastoral, romance, satire, serious drama, black comedy, and other genres. Not surprisingly, the term “tragicomedy” has been used vaguely and loosely, especially as the genre seems to reinvent itself every time it appears in the history of drama and theatre. In one sense, tragicomedy is coterminous with literature and life itself. But in dramatic practice tragicomedy comes into being or at least can be recognized only after tragedy and comedy have first established themselves. While plays that combine tragic and comic effects in various ways may be identified in all periods of drama, tragicomedy has flourished as an identifiable…

2693 words

Citation: Foster, Verna Ann. "Tragicomedy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 May 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5513, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5513 Tragicomedy 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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