AAP 2026 CONFERENCE

This talk will explore Aristotle’s concept of tragic wonder (to thaumaston), accompanied by shock (ekplexis). Despite the enormous interest in the Poetics, not many scholars (e.g., Kyriakou 1995, 88-96; Drake 2010) have analyzed closely the importance of wonder for best tragedies. While any unusual elements can arouse wonder in Methaphysics (1.982b12-14), tragic wonder should follow a narrower pattern: a logical plot structure that turns “beyond expectation” (para tēn doxan, Poetics 9.1452a3). This preference merits a deeper analysis than it has received. We shall investigate (1) why the Homeric epic seems to be given more freedom than tragedy in constructing wondrous incidents; (2) the reasons for which even the illusion of a precise dramatic purpose is better than randomness and (3) why this paradoxical tragic structure (logical and yet culminating in shock) surpasses all the other types of plots in the Poetics. As an illustration, we will focus on a puzzling case study, Euripides’ Iphigenia among the Taurians, which remains an Aristotelian favorite for achieving the wondrous effect despite ending with a series of illogical incidents. Finally, a sharp distinction will be drawn between the Aristotelian preferences and modern ideas of dramatic suspense.