Tragedy / Edition 1

by John Drakakis, Naomi Conn Liebler

Overview

This wide-ranging and unique collection of documents on one of the most enduring of literary genres, Tragedy, offers a radical revaluation of its significance in the light of the critical attention that it has received during the past one-hundred and fifty years. The foundations of much contemporary thinking about Tragedy are to be found in the writings of Hegel, Nietzsche, and Kierkegaard; in addition, the dialectical tradition emanating from Marxism, and the psycho-analytical writings of Freud, have extended significantly the horizons of the subject.

With the explosion of interest in the areas of post-structuralism, sociology of culture, social anthropology, feminism, deconstruction, and the study of ritual, new questions are being asked about this persistent artistic exploration of human experience. This book seeks to represent a full selection of these divergent interests, in a series of substantial extracts which display the continuing richness of the debate about a genre which has provoked, and challenged categorical discussion since the appearance of Aristotle's Poetics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780582209978
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/09/1998
Series:	Longman Critical Readers
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

John Drakakis is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Stirling. His publications include Shakespeare’s Resources (2022), Alternative Shakespeares, Second Edition (2002), and Tragedy (co-edited with Naomi Conn Liebler 1998).

Table of Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Introduction

Myth and tragedy

Tragedy, myth and ritual

Tragedy and pleasure

Chapter 2. Histories, archaeologies and genealogies

Aristotle’s Poetics

Fate, fortune and providence

Chapter 3. Ontology and dramaturgy

Radical tragedy

Tragedy after the Renaissance

Chapter 4. The philosophy of tragedy

The sublime

Schiller on tragedy

Hegel on tragedy

Bradley on Hegel

Nietzsche on tragedy

Beyond Nietzsche

Chapter 5. From action to character

Freud, Oedipus and Hamlet

Tragedy and the linguistic turn

Chapter 6. Tragedy: gender, politics and aesthetics

Tragedy and violence

Aesthetics

Chapter 7. Rethinking the tradition

Dismantling tragedy

Brecht against Aristotle

Saint Joan of the Stockyards. Mother Courage and Gallileo

Chapter 8. Tragedy, the post-modern and the post-human

Anti-humanism and post-humanism

Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot

Sarah Kane: Phaedra’s Love (1996)

Twenty-first century tragedy: Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt

 

Chapter 9. Conclusion

Glossary

Bibliography

Index