Tragic Pathos
Pity and Fear in Greek Philosophy and Tragedy
1st Edition
Published on 20. March 2012
978-1-139-18053-5 (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
Publishing group
Cambridge University Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
File size
1992,16 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-139-18053-5 (9781139180535)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2015
Cambridge University Press
€49.20
Shipment within 15-20 days
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.
