| Foreword | |
| 1 | Aristotle's Coercive System of Tragedy | |
| Art Imitates Nature | |
| What is the Meaning of "Imitation"? | |
| What, then, is the Purpose of Art and Science? | |
| Major Arts and Minor Arts | |
| What does Tragedy Imitate? | |
| What is Happiness? | |
| And What is Virtue? | |
| Necessary Characteristics of Virtue | |
| The Degrees of Virtue | |
| What is Justice? | |
| In What Sense can Theater Function as an Instrument for Purification and Intimidation? | |
| The Ultimate Aim of Tragedy | |
| A Short Glossary of Simple Words | |
| How Aristotle's Coercive System of Tragedy Functions | |
| Different Types of Conflict: Hamartia and Social Ethos | |
| 2 | Machiavelli and the Poetics of Virtu | |
| The Feudal Abstraction | |
| The Bourgeois Concretion | |
| Machiavelli and Mandragola | |
| Modern Reductions of Virtu | |
| 3 | Hegel and Brecht: The Character as Subject or the Character as Object? | |
| The "Epic" Concept | |
| Types of Poetry in Hegel | |
| Characteristics of Dramatic Poetry, Still According to Hegel | |
| Freedom of the Character-Subject | |
| A Word Poorly Chosen | |
| Does Thought Determine Being (or Vice Versa)? | |
| Can Man be Changed? | |
| Conflict of Wills or Contradiction of Needs? | |
| Empathy or What? Emotion or Reason? | |
| Catharsis and Repose, or Knowledge and Action? | |
| How to Interpret the New Works? | |
| The Rest Does not Count: They are Minor Formal Differences Between the Three Genres | |
| Empathy or Osmosis | |
| 4 | Poetics of the Oppressed | |
| Experiments with the People's Theater in Peru | |
| Conclusion: "Spectator," a Bad Word! | |
| 5 | Development of the Arena Theater of Sao Paulo | |
| Need for the "Joker" | |
| Goals of the "Joker" | |
| Structures of the "Joker" | |
| Appendices | |