The Notion of Dramatic Action in the Philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel

The subject of this work is outlined in the closing part of Hegel’s “Lectures on aesthetics” specially dedicated to dramatic poetry. The structure of work is defined by division of meaningful figures in dramatic action: 1. Playwright. 2. Spectator. 3. Actor. In Chapter 1 Kantian concept of reflexive capability as the source of every productive action in art is considered, followed by Hegelian notion of taste and distinction of ways of subjective spirit conceptualization, and the pathos of man in Kant and Hegel. All this is necessary for consideration of the figure of the playwright with reference to the question of mode of his creative origin and the emergence of vivacity of dramatic collision. In Chapter 2 the problem of freedom’s representation and the possibility of revealing the “traces” of subject’s free actions is considered, which leads to necessity of discussion on problem of tragic compassion and the general function of the spectator. The spectator becomes necessary element of action precisely because of the principal difference between his intuitive origin from the spectator’s creative one: the former is the “herald” of the Concept, of the concrete which always unfolds in action, while the latter gives the definition to drama possessing the reflexive position. In Chapter 3 the question of actor’s technique and its relation to the possibility of expression of pathos of the substantial idea is considered. The possibility of creative mutual understanding between actor and playwright, which can be divided with thousands of years, tells about mediation within their agency of what Hegel called “intelligence” in the third volume of “Encyclopedia” treating it as “dark cache” containing the inalienable amount of presentations and from which the speech “draws up” achieving its highest expression within the drama.