| Tragic Play: Irony and Theater from Sophocles to Beckett Contributor(s): Menke, Christoph (Author), Phillips, James (Translator) |
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ISBN: 023114556X ISBN-13: 9780231145565 Publisher: Columbia University Press OUR PRICE: $74.25 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: July 2009 Annotation: By exploring the deep philosophical significance of classic and modern tragedies, "Tragic Play" casts 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 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 tragedies by Sophocles, Shakespeare, Brecht, Heiner MA1/4ller, and Samuel Beckett, Menke investigates shifting terms of judgment, curse, reversal, misfortune, and violence. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | Aesthetics - Literary Criticism | Drama - Drama | Ancient & Classical |
| Dewey: 809.251 |
| LCCN: 2008038908 |
| Series: Columbia Themes in Philosophy, Social Criticism, and the Arts |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6" W x 9.1" (1.05 lbs) 248 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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 M ller, 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. |