Analysis Of Theater Of The Oppressed By Augusto Boal

In Theater of the Oppressed, Augusto Boal argues that theater is inherently political and that traditional, Aristotelian theater is inherently oppressive. He reviews the history of theater, from Aristotle through Machiavelli, Hegel, and Brecht, and proposes a new idea of theater that breaks the bounds between audience and performers, and between chorus and protagonist. In the Introduction, Boal introduces his main proposition, that theater is inherently political. He presents conflicting classical ideas of whether the theater is merely entertainment or is fundamentally political. Aristotle argued that theater and poetry are independent of politics, and Boal seeks to show that Aristotelian theater is a political tool that represses the†¦show more content†¦According to Boal, Aristotles tragic hero has one flaw, a characteristic that is antisocial or rebellious. The audience empathizes with this trait, and the virtuous character. When the flaw leads the character to tragedy, t he audience pities the character and fears for themselves, who share this trait. Through the characters downfall, the trait is suppressed in the audience. How does Art imitate Nature? Well Aristotle seems to think that â€Å"Art imitates nature† means that Art recreates the creative principle of created things. Not in the sense that it mimics things in the world, but that it â€Å"re-cerates† nature. In this sense, art utilizes the creative principal of created things. Artistic items are not exact reproductions, but contain much of the same tenets as the original so as to impart knowledge and understanding about that item. Boal describes ideas of the thinkers of Aristotle’s time and how Aristotle may have developed this point of view. Boal concludes this sub-section of section one with the idea of knowledge and how it is presented. He suggests that through dialectics and the debate of ideas knowledge ascends. Boal further depicts how Aristotle may have reconciled his position on the arts and society with that of his contemporaries. He introduced new concepts in the perception that substance is the enduring unity of matter and form. In tragedy (Aristotle’s characterization for theater),Show MoreRelatedBiography of Boal Augusto Essays2596 Words   |  11 PagesBiography of Boal Augusto *No Works Cited Brazilian Augusto Boal was raised in Rio de Janeiro. He was formally trained in chemical engineering and attended Columbia University in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Although his interest and participation in theatre began at an early age, it was just after he finished his doctorate at Columbia that he was asked to return to Brazil to work with the Arena Theatre in Sà £o Paulo. His work at the Arena Theatre led to his experimentation with new forms of