This groundbreaking collection provokes a major reassessment of the significance of tragedy and the tragic in late modernity. A distinguished group of scholars and theorists extends the discussion of tragedy beyond its usual parameters to include film, popular culture, and contemporary politics. Seven new essaysas well as eight essays originally published in a New Literary History special issue on tragedyaddress important, previously neglected areas of tragedy and postcolonial criticism. The new material explores the tragic dimensions of popular culture, the relationship between tragedy and pity, and feminism's avoidance of the tragic, and includes an incisive history of tragic theory. Classic and cutting-edge, this collection offers a provocative, accessible, and comprehensive treatment of tragedy and tragic theory. Contributors: Elisabeth Bronfen, University of Zurich; Stanley Corngold, Princeton University; Simon Critchley, University of Essex; Joshua Foa Dienstag, University of California, Los Angeles; Wai Chee Dimock, Yale University; Page Dubois, University of California, San Diego; Terry Eagleton, University of Manchester; Rita Felski, University of Virginia; Simon Goldhill, Cambridge University; Heather Love, University of Pennsylvania; Michel Maffesoli, University of Paris V; Martha C. Nussbaum, University of Chicago; Timothy Reiss, New York University; Kathleen Sands, University of Massachusetts, Boston; David Scott, Columbia University; George Steiner, University of Geneva; Olga Taxidou, University of Edinburgh
IntroductionPart One: Defining TragedyGeorge Steiner // ""Tragedy,"" ReconsideredSimon Goldhill // Generalizing About TragedyWai Chee Dimock // After Troy: Homer, Euripides, Total WarKathleen M. Sands // Tragedy, Theology, and Feminism in the Time After TimeJoshua Foa Dienstag // Tragedy, Pessimism, NietzschePart Two: Rethinking the History of TragedyPage duBois // Toppling the Hero: Polyphony in the Tragic CityMartha C. Nussbaum // The ""Morality of Pity"": Sophocles' PhiloctetesSimon Critchley // I Want to Die, I Hate My Life' Phaedra's MalaisePart Three: Tragedy and ModernityDavid Scott // Tragedy's Time: Postemancipation Futures Past and PresentStanley Corngold // Sebald's TragedyOlga Taxidou // Machines and Models for Modern Tragedy: Brecht/Berlau, Antigone- Model 1948Timothy J. Reiss // Transforming Polities and Selves:Greek Antiquity, West African ModernityPart Four: Tragedy, Film, Popular CultureElisabeth Bronfen // Femme Fatale'Negotiations of Tragic DesireHeather K. Love // Spectacular Failure: The Figure of the Lesbian in Mulholland DriveMichel Maffesoli // The Return of the Tragic in Postmodern SocietiesTerry Eagleton // CommentaryNotes on ContributorsIndex
""This is a stimulating and provocative collection. Anyone interested in our cultural and political fascination with 'endless Tragedie' will find plenty of red meat here.""
