Zaman/ Mekân Sempozyumu, İstanbul, Türkiye, 5 - 06 Mayıs 2016, ss.12
Time and Place in Poetics.
The “three unities” rule refers to the single action, single place and 24 hours plot
duration for a play. It is commonly held in drama literatüre that Aristotle suggested
this rule for tragedies in his Poetics. However, Aristotle does not talk about “unity of
location” in Poetics, and it is not possible to arrive a clear conclusion about time from
his statements. In 1449b, Aristotle uses the word “meko?' when he compares the
genres of Epos and tragedy in terms of duration. The exact meaning of this word is
“length”, “height” or “distance”. Aristotle States that Epos does not have a time
limitation but tragedies should be limited with “one period of the sun”. However, the
statements are not clear: does “one period of the sun” refer to the duration of the play
on the stage or to the time of action in the plot? In the second passage Aristotle
mentions this issue (1451a), it becomes clear that he means the duration of time
covered in the plot. Yet this time he replaces the criterion of “one period of the sun”
with “perceptibility” by the audience.
In my presentation, I will argue that Aristotle did not put forward the rule of three
unities, and we cannot talk about any rule concerning the parameters of time and
place.