Rethinking Tragedy

by Rita Felski (Editor)

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 essays—as well as eight essays originally published in a New Literary History special issue on tragedy—address 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 K. Love, University of Pennsylvania; Michel Maffesoli, University of Paris (V); Martha C. Nussbaum, University of Chicago; Timothy J. Reiss, New York University; Kathleen M. Sands, University of Massachusetts, Boston; David Scott, Columbia University; George Steiner, University of Geneva; Olga Taxidou, University of Edinburgh

Genres: Nonfiction, Theory

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Rita Felski is William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of English at the University of Virginia, and editor of New Literary History. Felski is a prominent scholar in the fields of aesthetics and literary theory, feminist theory, modernity and postmodernity, and cultural studies.

Felski received an honors degree in French and German literature from Cambridge University and her PhD from the Department of German at Monash University in Australia. Before coming to the University of Virginia in 1994, she taught in the Program for English and Comparative Literature at Murdoch University in Perth. She served as Chair of the Comparative Literature Program at Virginia from 2004 to 2008.

From 2003-2007 Felski served as U.S. editor of Feminist Theory. She has also served on the editorial boards of Modernism/Modernity, Modern Fiction Studies, The International Journal of Cultural Studies, Criticism, and Echo: A Music-Centered Journal. Her work has been translated into Korean, Russian, Polish, Swedish, Hungarian, Italian, Croatian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Mathilde Ingerslev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ganske interessant, men desværre ikke særligt relevant for mit speciale 🤷 3,5 ish

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I'm really interested in the aesthetic dimensions of political life -- or, in thinking about the political landscape as engaging with different genres -- I thought this book was really awesome. I have no great background knowledge of the scholarly literature on tragedy, but Felski does a fab job in her intro of laying out the debates clearly and concisely so that you can follow the essays easily. My favorite is by Wai Chee Dimock about social catastrophes and natural disasters, looking at catastrophe through the lens of Greek tragedy. There's also a great essay about the movie _Double Indemnity_ that made me want to watch it again. Michel Maffesoli makes an interesting claim that we're witnessing a Great Paradigm Shift from a belief in the rational individual who can bring about social progress to a "confrontation with destiny," a commitment to the moment, to "what is rather than what should be or could be." This live-for-today sensibility is tragic. Many essays show how tragedy, as an idea or mode or way of life, is also very relevant to thinking about agency after poststructuralism. The last essay, "Commentary," by Terry Eagleton, is hilarious but totally mean-spirited. Eagleton is *really* hard on the dude whose essay opens the volume, George Steiner, and with whom he disagrees about tragedy. Eagleton uses the phrase "coruscating on thin ice"--which playwright Christopher Fry first used--to describe this guy. I think that must be the cleverest put-down of all time.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic collection of current essays on the subject of tragedy. The first essay by George Steiner (author of the famous The Death of Tragedy) is worth the price of the book.