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
Biography
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).
