Anagnorisis

anagnorisis (from the ancient Greek ἀναγνώρισις, «recognition») or agnition is a narrative resource that consists of the discovery, by a character or others, of of essential data about their identity, their loved ones or their environment, hidden from him or her until that moment. The revelation alters the character's behavior and forces him to form a more accurate idea of himself and his surroundings. Anagnorisis also occurs when a main character reveals his previously hidden or veiled identity to other secondary characters, thus changing the character's identity. relationship, usually from a weak or non-existent link (a beggar or simple guest) to a strong link (the son of an enemy who cries out for revenge, the return of a long-absent king, etc.), producing a turning point in the story that makes her move towards her denouement.

Origins

Pinturicchio, The return of Odysseus. Returning to Ithaca Ulysses presents or reveals up to ten occasions his identity to his loved ones, since his physical traits have been changed by the gods and time and do not always recognize him.

The term was first used by Aristotle in his Poetics. Although anagnorisis is a frequent device in many genres, Aristotle described it in relation to classical Greek tragedy, with which it is especially associated.

According to Aristotle, the ideal moment for tragic anagnorisis is the peripecia (twist of fortune): at a crucial moment, everything is revealed and made clear to the protagonist, with almost always devastating effects. For example, the discovery by the tragic hero of some truth about himself, other people, or some actions that mean that, now that he knows it, the whole plot changes direction as a result of his reaction to the news.. The revelation of this truth (which was already a fact, but the protagonist was unaware) changes the perspective and reaction of the hero, who adapts and accommodates accepting his fate and consequently helping it to happen.

Examples

Edipo, king of Thebes, discovers that the true origin of the plagues that sprinkle his polys are caused by himself by fulfilling without knowing it with the Oracle of Delphis: "You will kill your father and marry your mother"with whom he had four children.

A classic example of anagnorisis in Greek tragedy is found in Sophocles' Oedipus the King”, when Oedipus learns that the person he had killed was his father and that his wife is his mother. Another particularly emotional case is that of Agave at the end of Euripides' " The Bacchae ", who arrives in Thebes with what he believes to be the head of a wild beast in his hand. As the god Dionysus withdraws from her being, she realizes that it is her own son, Pentheus, whom she and the other Bacchae have torn to pieces in an orgy of blood.

In Greek comedy, anagnorisis is also a frequent resource: in the works of Menander and his Latin imitators, characters who have been abandoned as children and raised as members of a lower social class abound. When establishing a relationship with a noble character, his humble background is a hindrance; at the end of the play, her true identity is discovered by some clue (a birthmark, a personal item the mother left with the baby), and the couple are able to be happily married.

In the Greek epic we have a good example of anagnorisis in the last songs of the «Odyssey», when Ulysses returns to Ithaca, his homeland, and several characters recognize him (his old dog Argos, his nurse Euryclea, his son Telemachus, his father Laertes...), in a gradation that ends when his wife Penelope, the most reluctant to accept the revelation, submits him to one last test to confirm his identity.

In Spanish literature, anagnorisis is commonplace in chivalric novels, baroque theater (for example, «La dama duende», by Pedro Calderón de la Barca) and drama Romantic. And it is also present in La gitanilla and in several of the exemplary novels of Miguel de Cervantes.

In English Renaissance literature, William Shakespeare also uses the characteristics associated with this term in his dramatic works, specifically his tragedies. Despite the moment of anagnorisis, of recognition, everything ends badly due to the inclusion of fatalism, typical of tragic works.

In pre-Hispanic literature, specifically in the drama Ollantay, we find a beautiful anagnorisis when the Inca Túpac Yupanqui finds Cusi Coyllur, a prisoner, and recognizes that she is his sister.

The most modern example would be in episode V of the Star Wars film saga: When Darth Vader reveals to Luke Skywalker that he is his father, the plot turns from being a battle between good and evil to being a conflict existential of the protagonist between his duty to fight against evil or redeem his fallen father.