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Tragic Play: Irony and Theater from Sophocles to Beckett (Columbia Themes in Philosophy, Social Criticism, and the Arts)

Tragic Play: Irony and Theater from Sophocles to Beckett (Columbia Themes in Philosophy, Social Criticism, and the Arts)

by Christoph Menke (Author), Christoph Menke (Author)

  • New

    Hardcover 2009

    $95.37
Synopsis

Tragic Play explores the deep philosophical significance of classic and modern tragedies in order to cast light on the tragic dimensions of contemporary experience. Romanticism, it has often been claimed, brought tragedy to an end, making modernity the age after tragedy. Christoph Menke opposes this modernist prejudice by arguing that tragedy remains alive in the present in the distinctively new form of the playful, ironic, and self-consciously performative. Through close readings of plays by William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, Heiner Muller, and Botho Strauss, Menke shows how tragedy re-emerges in modernity as tragedy of play. In Hamlet, Endgame, Philoktet, and Ithaka, Menke integrates philosophical theory with critical readings to investigate shifting terms of judgment, curse, reversal, misfortune, and violence.

$95.37

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 256
 Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 21 Jul 2009
ISBN 10: 023114556X
ISBN 13: 9780231145565
Book Overview: Christoph Menke develops tragedy as a modern mode of understanding in new and interesting ways. His ideas should generate quite a bit of debate not only in philosophy but also in literary studies and social theory. -- Fred Rush, University of Notre Dame Tragic Play is philosophical while also being informed by classical scholarship and aesthetic and dramaturgical theory. It is ambitious and accessible, as well as exciting. -- Martin Donougho, University of South Carolina Christoph Menke's theoretical framework is extremely dense and far-reaching, with a powerfully and consistently built argument that includes textual analyses offering interesting insights. -- Boris Gasparov, Columbia University

Media Reviews
Christoph Menke develops tragedy as a modern mode of understanding in new and interesting ways. His ideas should generate quite a bit of debate not only in philosophy but also in literary studies and social theory. -- Fred Rush, Univ. of Notre Dame
Author Bio
Christoph Menke is professor of philosophy at the University of Frankfurt am Main. His publications in English include The Sovereignty of Art, Aesthetic Negativity in Adorno and Derrida, and Reflections of Equality.