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

This article in full comprises 2720 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

Published 30 May 2008

Citation: Foster, Verna Ann. "Tragicomedy". The Literary Encyclopedia. 30 May 2008.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5513, accessed 9 February 2010.]