Anagnorisis
Etymology
Greek "anagnōrisis" (recognition, discovery), from "anagignōskein" (to recognize, to know again). Aristotle names it in the Poetics as a key turn of well-made tragic plots.
noun · /an-ag-NOR-ih-sis/
The moment in a drama when a character passes from ignorance to a crucial recognition.
What it names
The pivot of tragedy — the scene where the hero finally grasps a hidden truth, often about their own identity or their part in the disaster.
Example
Oedipus’s anagnorisis — the horrified instant he realizes he is the very murderer he has been hunting — is the model for the device.
Related idea
Broader and quieter is epiphany, a sudden personal insight anywhere in a story; anagnorisis is the specific plot-turning recognition, classically paired with the reversal of fortune called peripeteia.