Tragedy is one of the oldest and most resilient forms of narrative. Considering texts from ancient Greece to the present day, this comprehensive introduction shows how tragedy has been re-imagined and redefined throughout Western cultural history.
Tragedy offers a concise history of tragedy tracing its evolution through key plays, prose, poetry and philosophical dimensions. John Drakakis examines a wealth of popular plays, including works from the ancient Greeks, Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Sarah Kane and Tom Stoppard. He also considers the rewriting and appropriating of ancient drama though a wide range of authors, such as Chaucer, George Eliot, Ted Hughes and Colm Tóibín. Drakakis also demystifies complex philosophical interpretations of tragedy, including those of Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Benjamin.
This accessible resource is an invaluable guide for anyone studying tragedy in literature or theatre studies.
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).
