Module: Genre: The Tragedy-Comedy Complex

Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title	Genre: The Tragedy-Comedy Complex
Module Code	LIT1018 (ITS: EL103)
Faculty	English	School	Humanities & Social Sciences
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	5

Description

Starting with Aristotle’s Poetics and the literature of ancient Greece, this module will begin by exploring the creative tension between comedy and tragedy that has permeated culture. It will then move into a further exploration of genre, across literary history and national literatures.

Learning Outcomes

1. Discriminate between comedy and tragedy, applying a knowledge of Aristotleian concepts
2. Indicate when the tragic and the comic converge or get confused
3. Reflect upon the social responsiveness of genre
4. Understand the flexibility potential within genres
5. Comprehend the way in which presuppositions about genre shape reading

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full time hours per semester
Lecture	21	No Description
Tutorial	3	No Description
Independent Study	101	No Description
Total Workload: 125

Section Breakdown
CRN	10937	Part of Term	Semester 1
Coursework	0%	Examination Weight	0%
Grade Scale	40PASS	Pass Both Elements	Y
Resit Category	RC1	Best Mark	N
Module Co-ordinator	Michael Hinds	Module Teacher	Gearoid O'Flaherty, Kit Fryatt

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Assessment Breakdown
Short Answer Questions	n/a	25%	n/a
Assignment	n/a	75%	n/a

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; RC1: A resit is available for both^* components of the module. RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module. RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element. ^* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Aristotle

Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes

Comic Archetypes

Tragi-Comic Confusions

Tragi-Comic Cinema

Types of Comedy

Popular Genres

Popular Genres: Gun-Plays

Popular Genres: Fantasy

Popular Genres: Gothic

Beginnings of literary criticism, Tragedy and Comedy

Oedipus Rex, Medea, Lysistrata

From Ancient Greece to the Present

Dr. Faustus, Ethan Frome , Kafka, Beckett

Oldboy, Grizzly Man, True North, Duck Soup

Satire (Swift) - Screwball - Farce

Western: Stephen Crane “The Blue Hotel” Detective: Raymond Chandler The Big Sleep

Sci-Fi

Stories by Poe

Indicative Reading List

Books:

Aristotle / Horace / Longinus: 1976, Classical Literary Criticism, Penguin Harmondsworth,
Belsey, Catherine: 1985, The Subject of Tragedy, Oxford,
Eagleton, Terry: 2002, Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic, Blackwell Oxford,
Wood, James: 2004, The Irresponsible Self, Chatto, London,

Articles:
None

Other Resources

None