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.

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