Trilogy, a series of three dramas or literary or musical compositions that, although each is in one sense complete, have a close mutual relation and form one theme or develop aspects of one basic concept. The term originally referred specifically to a group of three tragedies written by one author for competition. This trilogy constituted the traditional set of plays presented in Athens by a number of competitors at the 5th-century-BC drama festivals known as the Great Dionysia. One of the first authors to present such a trilogy was Aeschylus, whose Oresteia is the only surviving example from that time. Modern examples of trilogies include Robertson Davies’s Deptford Trilogy and Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown Trilogy.
The term is less often applied to music, such as the Berlin Trilogy of David Bowie which is linked together by musical sound and lyrical themes, all having been recorded at least partly in Berlin, Germany.
The term is seldom applied outside art. One example is the “Marshall Trilogy”, a common term for three rulings written by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall from 1823 to 1832 concerning the legal status of Native Americans under U.S. law.
Creators of trilogies may later add more works. In such a case, the original three works may or may not keep the title “trilogy”.
The first three novels in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series were dubbed a trilogy, and even after he extended the series, author Douglas Adams continued to use the term for humorous effect – for example, calling Mostly Harmless “the fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named trilogy.”
Kevin Smith’s films Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy were often marketed as “The New Jersey Trilogy” because they had overlapping characters, events and locations. After the release of a fourth film, Dogma, the series is referred to as “the View Askewniverse”.
The Star Wars Trilogy of three films released between 1977 and 1983 has since been expanded into a trilogy of trilogies, including the original trilogy, the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy released between 1999 and 2005 and the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy released between 2015 and 2019.
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