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Tragedy

DOI
10.4324/9780415249126-M042-2
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Published
2010
DOI: 10.4324/9780415249126-M042-2
Version: v2,  Published online: 2010
Retrieved March 29, 2024, from https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/tragedy/v-2

References and further reading

  • Aristotle (c.mid-4th century) The Poetics of Aristotle, trans. and commentary, S. Halliwell, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1987.

    (Highly influential account of what could be called a ‘science’ of writing and understanding tragedy, describing its function and how it should be structured to fulfil that function. Established the paradigm of tragedy involving a tragic hero; pity, fear and suffering; and its effect as catharsis.)

  • Aristotle (c.mid-4th century) Rhetoric, trans. W. Rhys Roberts, inThe Complete Works of Aristotle, ed. J. Barnes, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.

    (The major source for Aristotle’s views on emotions and how to elicit them, presented as part of rhetoric as the study of persuasion, both proper and improper.)

  • Belfiore, E. S. (1992) Tragic Pleasures; Aristotle on Plot and Emotion, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    (A scholarly yet highly readable analysis of Aristotle’s views on plot and how it evokes emotions and then pleasure and catharsis, situated in the context of Aristotle’s philosophy as a whole.)

  • Bradley, A. C. (1909) ‘Hegel’s Theory of Tragedy’, inOxford Lectures on Poetry, London: Macmillan.

    (Lucid discussion of Hegel’s views, extending them to cover cases of conflict between good and evil, not just a reconciliation of various goods.)

  • Hegel, G. W. F. (1835–8) Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Arts, trans. T. M. Knox, 2 vols, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.

    (A dense and difficult work in which Hegel integrates theories of tragedy and poetry with his larger metaphysical scheme. He establishes a new paradigm of tragic action as conflict and its resolution, rather than pity, fear and suffering.)

  • Hume, D. (1757) ‘Of Tragedy’, inJ. W. Lenz (ed.) Of the Standard of Taste and Other Essays, Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965.

    (A delightful essay attempting to explain why we enjoy tragic drama.)

  • Krutch, J. W. (1929) ‘The Tragic Fallacy’, inThe Modern Temper, New York: Harcourt Brace.

    (Passionate – perhaps maddening, but certainly stirring – defence of the nobility of the desire to find meaning in the world. Condemns plays that end in despair, where the pursuit of the good is depicted as not important enough to justify the suffering.)

  • Lessing, G. E. (1767–8) Hamburg Dramaturgy, trans. H. Zimmern New York: Dover, 1962.

    (A series of essays that turns away from neoclassicism, proposing instead, for example, that the language of tragedy should be more natural and the psychology of its characters more realistic.)

  • Menke, C. (2009) Tragic Play: Irony and Theater from Sophocles to Beckett, trans. J. Phillips New York: Columbia University Press.

    (Compelling analysis of tragedy that makes irony its focus.)

  • Miller, A. (1949) ‘Tragedy and the Common Man’, inNew York Times, 27 February, §2, pp. 1, 3.

    (A short, widely reprinted newspaper article defending the possibility and relevance of tragedy to the modern world. It is the most widely read of numerous interesting writings on tragedy and drama.)

  • Nietzsche, F. (1872) The Birth of Tragedy, in W. Kaufmann (ed. and trans.) The Birth of Tragedy and the Case of Wagner, New York: Random House, 1967.

    (A dramatic and challenging account of the Apollonian and Dionysian as psychological forces at work in tragedy.)

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (1986) The Fragility of Goodness, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    (A defence of the view that by katharsis Aristotle meant a cognitive clarification of emotions and their appropriate objects, and that pity and fear are the tragic emotions because humans are vulnerable in a world beyond our control.)

  • Plato (c.380–367) Republic, trans. G. M. A. Grube, rev.C. D. C. Reeve, inPlato: Complete Works, ed. J. M. Cooper, Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997.

    (A complex dialogue presenting, inter alia, moral, epistemic and metaphysical reasons why tragedy and mimetic poetry should not have a role in the ideal state.)

  • Rymer, T. (1693) A Short View of Tragedy, London: Richard Baldwin.

    (A dated but at times amusing critique of tragedies through the centuries, arguing that they should serve the purpose of edifying the public about justice and virtue.)

  • Schopenhauer, A. (1883) The World as Will and Idea, vol. 3, trans. R. B. Haldane and J. Kemp, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

    (A clear and accessible discussion of how tragedy shows us that suffering results from the drive to satisfy our will, and pleasure results from surrendering the will to live.)

  • Sidney, P. (1595) An Apology for Poetry, or, The Defence of Poesy, 3rd edn, ed. Geoffrey Shepherd, intro. and rev.R. W. Maslen, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002.

    (Considers all fiction to be poetry and defends its power to ‘teach and delight’, while he also criticizes the state of the art in England at the time.)

  • Solomon, R. (2003) ‘Real Horror’, inD. Shaw and S. J. Schneider (eds) Dark Thoughts: Philosophical Reflections on Cinematic Horror, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

    (Argues for the importance of negative emotions as responses to real events, not just to works of art.)

  • Steiner, G. (1961) The Death of Tragedy, New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

    (Proposes that tragedy arises in cultures that see indomitable and implacable forces as limiting and thwarting human power and reason, leading to suffering and destruction.)

  • Unamuno, M. (1913) The Tragic Sense of Life, trans. A. Kerrigan, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974.

    (A passionate exploration of themes we now identify as existentialist, proposing that human tension and conflict, sorrow and anguish are ‘solved’, paradoxically, only by a longing for eternal life.)

  • Williams, R. (1966) Modern Tragedy, London: Chatto & Windus.

    (A poet and critic, he argues that our understanding of the history of tragedy and tragic theory is coloured by our own perspectives, and this helps us to resolve the conflict between what is accepted as tradition and our own ordinary notion of a tragic event.)

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Citing this article:
Feagin, Susan L.. Bibliography. Tragedy, 2010, doi:10.4324/9780415249126-M042-2. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Taylor and Francis, https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/tragedy/v-2/bibliography/tragedy-bib.
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