Tracing the tragic through Ancient Greek theatre and Howard Barker's Theatre of Catastrophe

In this thesis, the continuities between the institutional and intellectual foundations of Ancient Greek theatre and Howard Barker's Theatre of Catastrophe are examined. The examination considers the continuum between ancient and contemporary tragedy through three intrinsic institutes that are catastrophe, catharsis, and chorus. It first considers the transition of rituals rooted in the Dionysian cult into the formation of tragedy, then conducts a contrastive assessment of Aeschylus' Agamemnon (458 BCE), Sophocles' Oedipus the King (c. 433 BCE), and Euripides' Medea (431 BCE) with Barker's Blok/Eko (2011). The thesis insists that Barker resists the Aristotelian theorisation of theatre as an ethical and instructional foundational form, which resituates art as an aesthetic extension of existence. In contrast to the Aristotelian theorisation of catastrophe, catharsis, and chorus as an ethical institution, Barker's theatre situates ethical intent inconclusive. Methodologically, the thesis utilises intertextual and intellectual examination of theatrical texture. The outcomes construe that catastrophe no longer constitutes a denouement but a detriment. The archaic catharsis that consolidated the audience turned into anti-catharsis that confronted the audience with dislocation, dissolution, and distortion. The chorus no longer represents collective consciousness; instead, it echoes the fragmented and erratic individualism. The transition is assessed as a structural stance to the ethical and existential isolation of the modern individual. In conclusion, the thesis reveals that Barker's Theatre of Catastrophe revived the Dionysian foundation of tragedy. It reverses moderation in favour of excess, ethical coherence in favour of ambiguity, and harmony in favour of solitude. In this sense, Barker's resistance to Aristotelian form associated his artistic attitude with a Nietzschean force. This stance asserts an autonomous aesthetic as a constitution of tragedy construction. Thus, tragedy is conceived not as ethical inculcation but as a confrontation with incoherence within existence. Keywords: Howard Barker, Tragedy, Catastrophe, Catharsis, Chorus