The Locus of Tragedy

Front Cover
Arthur Cools
BRILL, 2008 - Social Science - 334 pages
Ask for the tragic and Europe will answer. Leaving behind the philosophersa (TM) enthusiasm of the nineteenth century, a ~tragedya (TM) and a ~the tragica (TM) now seem little more than vague containers. However, it appears that we still discover a tragic essence in our personal lives. Time and again tragedy is being registered, written down and staged. This book wants to open a contemporary philosophical perspective on the tragic. What is the locus of tragedy? Does it relate to metaphysics, the gods, destiny, and chance? Or is it a matter of ethics, of the Law and its transgression? Does man himself occupy the locus of tragedy, because of his unreasonable and boundless desires, as many philosophers have suggested? Is man today still able to account for his tragic condition? Or do we locate the tragic first and foremost in the esthetic imagination? Is not the theatrical genre of tragedy the locus authenticus of all things tragic? Is there more to the tragic than drama and play?
 

Selected pages

Contents

Tragedy and Hope Terry Eagleton
1
PART ONE THE POLIS AS THE LOCUS OF TRAGEDY
7
The Problem of Place in Greek Tragedy David Janssens
9
How to Perform the Polis? Tragedy as the Locus of Deception Bram Van Oostveldt and Stijn Bussels
29
PART TWO THE EARLY MODERN LOCUS OF TRAGEDY
45
The Political Theology of Ernst Kantorowicz and the Theatricality of Absolutism Klaas Tindemans
47
A Literary Approach to Christian Tragedy Enrica Zanin
65
Le cas de Britannicus 1669 de Jean Racine Karel Vanhaesebrouck
81
Selfhood as the Locus of the Tragic in Paul Ricoeurs Soimême comme un autre Arthur Cools
165
Kierkegaard and Lacan on a Modern Antigone Paul Vanden Berghe
181
Fate Oedipus and Beyond Jens De Vleminck
197
PART FIVE TRAGEDY AND MODERN LITERATURE
215
On Ibsen Simon Critchley
217
The Tragic Heroism of Captain Ahab Daniel Shaw
233
The Crystallization of Odette and Albertine in À la Recherche du temps perdu Rosa Slegers
245
Tragic Weapons Turned Against Tragedy in Artauds Theatre of Cruelty Laurens De Vos
263

PART THREE TRAGEDY AND MODERNITY
103
Modernity in Hölderlins Remarks on Oedipus and Antigone Frans van Peperstraten
105
Is the Tragic Always the Tragic? Kierkegaard on Antiquity and Modernity in Shakespeare Adam Wood
121
Examining the Language of Nietzsches Die Geburt der Tragödie Thomas Crombez
139
Nietzsche and the Paradox of Tragedy Robrecht Vandemeulebroecke
151
PART FOUR TRAGEDY AND ANTROPOLOGY
163
PART SIX THE EXPERIENCE OF THE TRAGIC IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE
277
The Rebirth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Technology Jos de Mul
279
The Unstoppable Rise of the Comic Perspective Johan Taels
299
What Should Be Said of Tragedy Today? Dennis J Schmidt
319
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2008)

Arthur Cools, Ph.D. (2003) in Philosophy, Catholic University of Leuven, is Professor of Philosophy of Culture at the University of Antwerp. He has published in the field of contemporary French philosophy and literature.Thomas Crombez, Ph.D. (2006) in Theatre Studies, University of Antwerp, is Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Antwerp. He has published on twentieth-century and contemporary avant-garde theatre, particularly on the intersections of philosophy and the performing arts. He is the co-editor of On the Outlook: Figures of the Messianic (CSP, 2007).Johan Taels, Ph.D. (1987) in Philosophy, Catholic University of Leuven, is Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at the University of Antwerp. He has published articles and studies on Ethics, Philosophy of Religion and S. Kierkegaard. Rosa Slegers, Ph.D. (2007) in Philosophy, Fordham University, is assistant professor of philosophy at Centre College, KY where she teaches ethical theory, modern continental philosophy, and philosophy of art and literature.

Bibliographic information