Tragedy
A Short Introduction
Published on 9. February 2009
152 pages
978-0-470-76585-2 (ISBN)
Description
Tragedy: A Short Introduction reinvigorates the genre forreaders who are eager to embrace it, but who often find thetraditional masterpieces too distant from their own language andworld.
* * Argues that today's most popular television shows andfilms thrive on the type of violence, passion, madness, andcatastrophe first introduced to the stage in fifth centuryAthens
* Offers selected case studies that exemplify the compellingqualities of tragedy
* Reviews the history of tragic performance and the qualities ofthe classic tragic hero, and clarifies the role of plot in definingtraged
* Analyzes the difference between a tragedy, a catastrophe, and amere unhappy ending
* Explores the past and future of the tragic form
Reviews / Votes
"Rebecca Bushnell's Tragedy: A Short Introduction is a brisk guidefor the student reader. Bushnell's approach is not onlycomparative, but even eclectic, as may befit the often ratherunwieldy subject of tragedy . . . the reader will find helpfuldirections to further reading, but as a concise study, the realstrength of this book lies in its close, attentive engagement withcanonical texts." (Oxford Journal, 1 March 2011)More details
Other editions
Person
Rebecca Bushnell is Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. She edited A Companion to Tragedy and authored Green Desire: Imagining Early Modern English Gardens, A Culture of Teaching: Early Modern Humanism in Theory and Practice, Tragedies of Tyrants: Political Thought and Theater in the English Renaissance, and Prophesying Tragedy: Sign and Voice in Sophocles' Theban Plays.
Content
List of Illustrations.
Acknowledgments.
Preface.
Chapter 1. Tragic Theaters.
Chapter 2. Tragic Form and Language.
Chapter 3. Tragic Plots.
Chapter 4. Tragic Heroes.
Chapter 5. Tragic History and Tragic Future.
Plays Cited.
Bibliography.
Index
