What is tragedy? What does the term imply? The word had outgrown its original context of literature and art and acquired wider and looser meanings.
Originally published in 1968, Dr Brereton seeks to establish the basis of a definition which will hold good on various planes and over a wide range of dramatic and other literature. Various theories are examined, beginning with Aristotle and taking in the Marxist interpretation and the two main religious theories of the sacrificial hero and the built-in conflict in fallen human nature. These theories are tested out on representative works by Sophocles, Shakespeare, Racine, Ibsen, Beckett and others, and the findings which emerge are developed in the course of the book. This is conceived as a re-exploration of a widely debated subject in the light of a few clear basic principles.
The result is a lucid study which will be especially valuable for students of literature and drama.
Author(s): Geoffrey Brereton
Series: Routledge Revivals
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 296
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Original Title Page
Original Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Foreword
I. Tragedy in Theory
1. The Notion of Tragedy
2. The Legacy of Aristotle
3. Tragedy and Religion
4. The Tragic Sense of Life
II. Tragedy in Practice
5. Some Classic Tragedies: Oedipus, Hamlet, Macbeth, Phèdre
6. Some Constants of Dramatic Tragedy
7. An Anti-Tragedy: Candide
III. The Duality Conflict
8. Two Worlds Or One? Neoplatonism, Pascal
9. Imagination Enthroned: Blake and Romanticism
10. Imagination Dethroned: Ibsen, Chekhov
IV. Twentieth-Century Positions
11. Claudel: Partage de Midi
12. Beckett: Waiting for Godot
13. Consequences
Index
