Feasibility Study of Tragedy Genre for Dramatizing Ashura Incident by Approach to Screen Writing

Tragedy is one of the most important dramatic genres dealing with the most serious and important issues befalling human beings.  It deals with man’s resistance against great powers, leading him towards an unknown destiny, providing him with perception and knowledge in compensation of the suffering inflicted. Tragic dramas portray disastrous destinies to purge and purify the audience and result in spiritual refinement. This capacity of Tragedy makes us think about converting religious narratives into performances in which they strive in purging and purifying souls.
Religious narratives are part of our literary and cultural treasures. They include Quranic, religious stories, and the history of prophets and chosen ones. The present study tries to identify the potentials of tragedy as a genre in dramatization of religious narratives in the Islamic tradition. It finally concludes that tragedy with all its components including hero’s action, Hamartia (i.e. fatal fascination rather than traditional Aristotelian concept of it), Catharsis and recognition can provide a good background to discover the truth and lead to spiritual refinement. We believe it is a good basis and starting point to dramatize what happened in story of Ashura.