
Tragic Pathos
Pity and Fear in Greek Philosophy and Tragedy
Dana Lacourse Munteanu(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Published on 14. May 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
294 pages
978-1-107-52658-7 (ISBN)
Description
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.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
429 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-107-52658-7 (9781107526587)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
03/2012
1st Edition
Cambridge University Press
€27.99
Available for download

Book
11/2011
Cambridge University Press
€122.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Dana Munteanu is Assistant Professor in the Department of Greek and Latin at Ohio State University. She has published articles on Aristotle, Greek drama and the reception of classics in modern literature and in opera, as well as editing a forthcoming collection of essays on emotion, gender and genre in antiquity. Her future research projects include a monograph on 'staged death' in Greek drama and an interdisciplinary project on the ethics of aesthetics.
Content
Introduction; Part I. Theoretical Views about Pity and Fear as Aesthetic Emotions: 1. Drama and the emotions: an Indo-European connection?; 2. Gorgias: a strange trio, the poetic emotions; 3. Plato: from reality to tragedy and back; 4. Aristotle: the first 'theorist' of the aesthetic emotions; Part II. Pity and Fear within Tragedies: 5. An introduction; 6. Aeschylus: Persians; 7. Prometheus Bound; 8. Sophocles: Ajax; 9. Euripides: Orestes; Appendix: catharsis and the emotions in the definition of tragedy in the Poetics.