Tragic Play - Irony and Theater from Sophocles to Beckett

Erscheinungsjahr 2009
ISBN: 978-0-231-14556-5
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 248 Seiten, Format (B × H): 162 mm x 237 mm, Gewicht: 526 g

Reihe: Columbia Themes in Philosophy, Social Criticism, and the Arts

Tragic Play explores the deep philosophical significance of classic and modern tragedies in order to cast light on the tragic dimensions of contemporary experience. Romanticism, it has often been claimed, brought tragedy to an end, making modernity the age after tragedy. Christoph Menke opposes this modernist prejudice by arguing that tragedy remains alive in the present in the distinctively new form of the playful, ironic, and self-consciously performative. Through close readings of plays by William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, Heiner Müller, and Botho Strauss, Menke shows how tragedy re-emerges in modernity as "tragedy of play." In Hamlet, Endgame, Philoktet, and Ithaka, Menke integrates philosophical theory with critical readings to investigate shifting terms of judgment, curse, reversal, misfortune, and violence.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Menke, Christoph

Weitere Mitwirkende

Phillips, James

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ästhetik
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Dramen und Dramatiker

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Prefatory NotePart I. The Excess of Judgment: A Reading of Oedipus Tyrannus1. "It was I myself": The Shape of Destiny Acting, by Knowing "In the Manner of Tragedy"2. From Judging to Being Judged: The Story of Oedipus The Juridification of the Oracle Placing a Curse Self-Condemnation The "Curse of the Law"3. Author and Character: Oedipus's Existence Dramatic Existence Transcendental Dramatics Excursus: The Concept of Tragic Irony4. The Violence of Judgment: Oedipus's Experience Philosophy and Tragedy The Objectivity of Judgment Oedipus's Lament Errors Great and Small The Paradox in the Judgment of an Error5. "Learning from Suffering": Tragedy and LifePart II. Theoretical Interlude: The Process of Tragedy6. Toward an Aesthetics of Tragedy: From the Beautiful to Play The Suspension of the Tragic in the Beautiful Contemplation or Reflection Acting Out Action The Freedom of the Actor7. Promise and Impotence of Play Parody of Tragedy and Tragedy of Parody: Romantic Comedy The Untragic Hero: The Dialectical Lehrstück Meta-theater, by Meta-tragedy Part III. The Tragedy of Play8. Tragedy and Skepticism: On Hamlet Action, by Knowledge "Madness" and Irony Dizziness of Reflection: Theater and Tragedy9. Three Sketches: Beckett, by Müller The Score of the Feud: Samuel Beckett's Endgame Gladiators of Play: Heiner Müller's Philoktet Never: Botho Strauss's IthakaBacknotesBibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Christoph Menke is professor of philosophy at the University of Frankfurt am Main. His publications in English include The Sovereignty of Art, Aesthetic Negativity in Adorno and Derrida, and Reflections of Equality.