The Mid-Field Play of Agôn-Alea and the Place of Chance in the Construction of the Tragic Element in Racine

According to Roger Caillois's social epistemology, agon and alea are the first two principles of games which unfold between the arbitrary polarity of the play tendencies of paidia and ludus. The traditional view on tragedies strongly supported by Aristotelian authors is that, in its particular tragic universe, the stakes are determined by an implacable fatality directed by the probable and the necessary. However, in most of Racine 's plays, the course of events seems to revolve around fortune which ends up creating a sort of middle field of tragic action between agon and alea. The article maintains that chance takes center stage in Racine 's theater, of which the tragic plot must be explored from a stochastic perspective. It uses the notion of "mid-field" borrowed from ball games meaning the mid-fielder position, a position which maximizes the potential for chance in these games.