Principles of Tragedy - A Rational Examination of the Tragic Concept in Life and Literature
This book originated in a search for a definition either of tragedy or of the main tragic elements which would hold good on various planes and over a wide range of literature and drama. It seemed that if the term 'tragic' had any validity at all when used by a modern commentator it ought to include factors common at least to Sophocles, Shakespeare, Racine, and probably Ibsen and others, irrespective of the difference in their historical and ethical backgrounds. The simple conviction that this should be so runs into truly formidable objections, but the author eventually reached the conclusion that they are not insurmountable providing one confines oneself to essentials.
This book explores modern literature's responses to the tragic. It examines writers from the latter half of the nineteenth century through to the later twentieth century who respond to ideas about tragedy.
Iphigeneia in Tauris (Greek Tragedy in New Translations)
Added by: Kahena | Karma: 11524.33 | Fiction literature | 7 December 2011
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Iphigeneia in Tauris (Greek Tragedy in New Translations)
The modern reader may have difficulty conceiving of Iphigeneia in Tauris as tragedy, for the term in our sense is associated with downfall, death, and disaster. But to the ancient Greeks, the use of heroic legend, the tragic diction and meters, and the tragic actors would have defined it as pure tragedy, the happy ending notwithstanding. While not one of his "deep" dramatic works, the play is Euripidean in many respects, above all in its recurrent theme of escape, symbolized in the rescue of Iphigeneia by Artemis, to whom she was about to be sacrificed.
A critical re-examination of the views of Plato, Aristotle, Hegel and Nietzsche on tragedy. Ancient Greek tragedy is revealed as surprisingly modern and experimental, while such concepts as mimesis, catharsis, hubris and the tragic collision are discussed from different perspectives.
Two BBC radio dramatisations based on Graham Greene stories. "The Third Man" is a thriller set in Vienna after World War II, and "The Fallen Idol" a psychological drama of personal relationships and a boy's tragic initiation into the world of adult emotions.
