Tragedy and Tragic Theory: An Analytical Guide

Comprehending tragedy has been a major philosophical and critical preoccupation in Western thought. Whether concerned with the generic problem of definition or with tragedy in the context of specific writers or periods, books with multiple and often conflicting perspectives abound. In an effort to bring order to the explanations over two millennia, Tragedy and Tragic Theory analyses the principal ideas about tragedy from Plato to the present. Critically surveying the similarities and differences among and between major theories, Palmer analyzes features associated with tragedy, such as the tragic hero, Katharsis, and self-recognition; develops a working definition of tragedy; and applies these ideas to a sampling of plays that present special interpretive problems. He incorporates and explores the ideas of such eminent thinkers as Aristotle, Hegel, Nietzche, Schopenhauer, Schiller, Kierkegaard, and Freud, as well as contemporary theorists. By examining both tragedy and the theoretical responses to tragedy, this study aims to demonstrate that the definition of tragedy depends on the meaning perceived by an audience, rather than on a structured stimulus independent of any response; yet, it does not abandon the possibility of isolating fixed defining characteristics. The audience response approach provides a framework for analysing earlier theories. Systematically developed, the study is equally valuable as a text in drama and criticism or as a convenient reference tool for use in drama theory and by theorists.