'Classical Shape' of the Sophoclean Tragedy: An Application of a Computerized Minimization Procedure
Karel Hubka · Literary and Linguistic Computing · 1986
If one interprets the characters occurring in a scene of a theatre play as propositional variables and the non-occurring ones as negated propositional variables, the character-scene matrix of the play can be reformulated as an expression of the propositional calculus, which in its turn allows of being shortened into an expression of minimal length while describing the same truth-value function as the original one. The product terms of the minimal expression define the set-theoretical constructs called topologies, within which the relation of dominance is uniquely defined The dominance relation within each topology can be represented by the dominance graph of the topology The ‘merger’ of the dominance graphs of the individual topologies then constitutes the dominance graph of the play. This graph, having the characters of the play as its vertices, serves as a basis for the construction of the dominance scale of the play. In this article, which is a continuation of a similar study of the Greek and Roman Comedies, the described method has been applied to the analysis of the seven Sophocles' tragedies The dominance scales of the tragedies and the so-called conflict dynamics hypothesis formulated with respect to the positions of characters on the scales have been compared with Kirkwood's study of the Sophoclean dramatic construction. There he described the ‘linear’, ‘diptych’, ‘triangular’ and ‘illustrative’ type of dramatic construction Within the traditional aesthetics only the ‘linear’ type was considered ‘classical’ while the other types were viewed more or less as Sophocles' failure to achieve the ‘classical shape’