A critical study of the Greek tragic vision in the context of other plays taken for the purpose manifests that the conceptualization of tragedy has followed three paradigmatic shifts. The Greeks believed in Divine universe higher than the mundane which impacted upon the latter for good and bad in response to its own moral order and its canons. For example, Sophocles' Oedipus is fated to commit parricide and incest even before his birth. Euripides' Medea takes help from the sun-god. Aegeus goes to Delphi to know the reason of his remaining issueless. Medea is a sorceress and invokes the supernatural powers to kill her foes. In other tragic visions like that of Shakespeare's, Neoclassical and Modern tragic vision, it's is hardly so. The application of various perspectives of Aristotle, Aurobindo, Jung, Joseph Campbell, George A. Kelly, Tony Wolfe etc. would help us unfurl the skein tragic tangles in the life we human beings.
Visual culture, performance and spectacle lay at the heart of all aspects of ancient Greek daily routine, such as court and assembly, cult and ritual, and art and culture. Seeing was considered the most secure means of obtaining knowledge, with many citing the etymological connection between ‘seeing’ and ‘knowing’ in ancient Greek as evidence for this. Seeing was also however often associated with mere appearances, false perception and deception. Gazing and visuality in the ancient Greek world have had a central place in the scholarship for some time now, enjoying an abundance of pertinent discussions and bibliography. If this book differs from the previous publications, it is in its emphasis on diverse genres: the concepts ‘gaze’, ‘vision’ and ‘visuality’ are considered across different Greek genres and media. The recipients of ancient Greek literature (both oral and written) were encouraged to perceive the narrated scenes as spectacles and to ‘follow the gaze’ of the characters in the narrative. By setting a broad time span, the evolution of visual culture in Greece is tracked, while also addressing broader topics such as theories of vision, the prominence of visuality in specific time periods, and the position of visuality in a hierarchisation of the senses.
In the final ten years of his life, Tony Tanner tackled the largest project any critic in English can take on, writing a preface to each of Shakespeare's plays. This collection serves as a comprehensive introduction for the general reader. Tanner brings Shakespeare to life, explicating everything from big-picture issues such as the implications of shifts in Elizabethan culture to close readings of Shakespeare's deployment of complex words in his plays.--[book jacket].
Scholars have often focused on understanding Aristotle's poetic theory, and particularly the concept of catharsis in the Poetics, as a response to Plato's critique of pity in the Republic. However, this book shows that, while Greek thinkers all acknowledge pity and some form of fear as responses to tragedy, each assumes for the two emotions a different purpose, mode of presentation and, to a degree, understanding. This book reassesses expressions of the emotions within different tragedies and explores emotional responses to and discussions of the tragedies by contemporary philosophers, providing insights into the ethical and social implications of the emotions.
Examines the way in which Sophocles' play "Oedipus Tyrannus" and its hero, Oedipus, King of Thebes, were probably received in their own time and place, and relates this to twentieth-century receptions and interpretations, including those of Sigmund Freud.
“Dr Rıza Öztürk’s new book, The Origin of Hardy’s Tragic Vision, is a lucid explanation of the most important aspect of novelist Thomas Hardy’s worldview – the destruction of self. Dr Öztürk gets to the core of Hardy’s ‘tragic vision’ – evident in the novelist’s interpretation of the dramatic interplay between character and circumstance. To what degree either element of character or circumstance weighs in the tragic equation is the subject of discourse in Öztürk’s book, a significant acquisition for students and scholars of Hardy, Victorian literature and culture, or the history of the English novel. This study of Hardy tackles the novelist’s formulation of tragedy as an individual’s ‘natural aim or desire’ – and attempts to answer the important question concerning who or what is responsible for such appetite. The Origin of Hardy’s Tragic Vision can serve as a handbook in the study of tragedy, from the ancient Greek notions to manifestations in late nineteenth century novelists (with reference to modern novelists and dramatists, such as D. H. Lawrence and Henrik Ibsen). Öztürk’s analysis, from the impulse of character in The Mayor of Casterbridge, through the envelope of circumstance in Tess of the D’Urbervilles, culminates comprehensively in his discussion of the depletion of life in Jude the Obscure. As a novelist familiar with the ideas of Schopenhauer and Darwin, Hardy’s tragic vision encompasses a brutally stark statement about the reality of life itself, and this assessment is captured brilliantly in Rıza Öztürk’s important book. Regarding tragedy from the technical elements to the thematic, to its special attention in terms of feminism and illustrations of the absurd in Jude the Obscure, there is no question that The Origin of Hardy’s Tragic Vision fills the need for newer interpretations of a vital figure in English literature who straddles both the Victorian and modern eras.” – Gregory F. Tague, PhD, Professor of English, St. Francis College, New York; author of Character and Consciousness (2005) and Ethos and Behavior (2008); editor of the ASEBL Journal
Why did Greek tragedy and "the tragic" come to be seen as essential to conceptions of modernity? And how has this belief affected modern understandings of Greek drama? In Genealogy of the Tragic, Joshua Billings answers these and related questions by tracing the emergence of the modern theory of the tragic, which was first developed around 1800 by thinkers associated with German Idealism. The book argues that the idea of the tragic arose in response to a new consciousness of history in the late eighteenth century, which spurred theorists to see Greek tragedy as both a unique, historically remote form and a timeless literary genre full of meaning for the present. The book offers a new interpretation of the theories of Schiller, Schelling, Hegel, Hölderlin, and others, as mediations between these historicizing and universalizing impulses, and shows the roots of their approaches in earlier discussions of Greek tragedy in Germany, France, and England. By examining eighteenth-century readings of tragedy and the interactions between idealist thinkers in detail, Genealogy of the Tragic offers the most comprehensive historical account of the tragic to date, as well as the fullest explanation of why and how the idea was used to make sense of modernity. The book argues that idealist theories remain fundamental to contemporary interpretations of Greek tragedy, and calls for a renewed engagement with philosophical questions in criticism of tragedy.
Shakespeare's tragic vision has its roots firmly grounded in the thrust and theme represented by the Elizabethan tragic view. Here fate isn't character but it is the character that creates volley like tragic fate. Due to this flaw in his character, Lear got himself fated to be doomed in the world of suffering. Again Shakespeare's Timon suffers for being poor judge human nature. He buys flatterers not friends. By the way, friends aren't for sale, the fact Timon must have been aware of. No gods or prophecies never ever directed their actions, In a world where man is surrounded by Gonerils, Reagans and Edmunds man must have strong cerebral part of character to treat them judiciously. Other heroes of Shakespeare's tragedies became zeros due to the hamartia- a flaw in their character e.g. Hamlet was indecisive, Othello was over-passionate etc. Etc. With the passage of time, paradigms do undergo transformation i.e. Greek tragic vision got replaced by the Shakespeare's.
Is it possible to preserve national security through ethical policies? Richard Ned Lebow seeks to show that ethics are actually essential to the national interest. Recapturing the wisdom of classical realism through a close reading of the texts of Thucydides, Clausewitz and Hans Morgenthau, Lebow argues that, unlike many modern realists, classic realists saw close links between domestic and international politics, and between interests and ethics. Lebow uses this analysis to offer a powerful critique of post-Cold War American foreign policy. He also develops an ontological foundation for ethics and makes the case for an alternate ontology for social science based on Greek tragedy s understanding of life and politics. This is a topical and accessible book, written by a leading scholar in the field.
