A Companion to Tragedy

A Companion to Tragedy is an essential resource for anyone interested in exploring the role of tragedy in Western history and culture. The Companion is based on the premise that the genre of tragedy is inseparable from history, insofar as it was born in the Greek city-state, and its life has been intertwined with the fate of dynasties, revolutions, and crises of social change. At the same time, this historical approach is complemented by consideration of philosophical and religious readings of tragedy.
Featuring essays by renowned scholars from multiple disciplines, the volume is structured into two parts: the first set of essays on "tragic thought" considers interpretations of tragedy through religion, philosophy, and history; while the second set on "tragedy in history" traces the historical development of tragedy from classical Greece to modernity. Together, they demonstrate how the practice of reading tragedy has changed radically in the past two decades.

Notes on Contributors viii
Acknowledgments xii
Introduction 1
Rebecca Bushnell
Tragic Thought
Part I Tragedy and the Gods 5
1 Greek Tragedy and Ritual 7
Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood
2 Tragedy and Dionysus 25
Richard Seaford
Part II Tragedy, Philosophy, and Psychoanalysis 39
3 Aristotle's Poetics: A Defense of Tragic Fiction 41
Kathy Eden
4 The Greatness and Limits of Hegel's Theory of Tragedy 51
Mark W. Roche
5 Nietzsche and Tragedy 68
James I. Porter
6 Tragedy and Psychoanalysis: Freud and Lacan 88
Julia Reinhard Lupton
Part III Tragedy and History 107
7 Tragedy and City 109
Deborah Boedeker and Kurt Raaflaub
8 Tragedy and Materialist Thought 128
Hugh Grady
9 Tragedy and Feminism 145
Victoria Wohl
Tragedy in History
Part IV Tragedy in Antiquity 161
10 Tragedy and Myth 163
Alan H. Sommerstein
11 Tragedy and Epic 181
Ruth Scodel
12 Tragedy in Performance 198
Michael R. Halleran
13 The Tragic Choral Group: Dramatic Roles and Social Functions 215
Claude Calame, translated by Dan Edelstein
14 Women in Greek Tragedy 234
Sheila Murnaghan
15 Aristophanes, Old Comedy, and Greek Tragedy 251
Ralph M. Rosen
16 Roman Tragedy 269
Alessandro Schiesaro
Part V Renaissance and Baroque Tragedy 287
17 The Fall of Princes: The Classical and Medieval Roots of English Renaissance Tragedy 289
Rebecca Bushnell
18 Something is Rotten: English Renaissance Tragedies of State 307
Matthew H. Wikander
19 English Revenge Tragedy 328
Michael Neill
20 Spanish Golden Age Tragedy: From Cervantes to Calderö n 351
Margaret R. Greer
Part VI Neoclassical and Romantic Tragedy 371
21 Neoclassical Dramatic Theory in Seventeenth-Century France 373
Richard E. Goodkin
22 French Neoclassical Tragedy: Corneille/Racine 393
Mitchell Greenberg
23 Romantic Tragic Drama and its Eighteenth-Century Precursors: Remaking British Tragedy 411
Jeffrey N. Cox
24 German Classical Tragedy: Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, and Bü chner 435
Simon Richter
25 French Romantic Tragedy 452
Barbara T. Cooper
Part VII Tragedy and Modernity 469
26 Modern Theater and the Tragic in Europe 471
Gail Finney
27 Tragedy in the Modern American Theater 488
Brenda Murphy
28 Using Tragedy against its Makers: Some African and Caribbean Instances 505
Timothy J. Reiss
Index 537