Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780691176369
Publisert
2014
Utgiver
Vendor
Princeton University Press
Vekt
425 gr
Høyde
235 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
UU, UP, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
280
Forfatter
Om bidragsyterne
Joshua Billings is assistant professor of classics and humanities at Yale University.Winner of a 2015 Charles Goodwin Award of Merit, Society for Classical Studies "[Billings'] Genealogy is an impressive study that pinpoints distinctions, elucidates complexities and helps to show how they arose and why they matter. His readings are adroit and scrupulously contextualized... Here is a book whose subtlety and scope prompt further reflection on profoundly important matters."--Michael Silk, Times Literary Supplement
Why did Greek tragedy and "the tragic" come to be seen as essential to conceptions of modernity? And how has this belief affected modern understandings of Greek drama? In Genealogy of the Tragic, Joshua Billings answers these and related questions by tracing the emergence of the modern theory of the tragic, which was first developed around 1800 by thinkers associated with German Idealism. The book argues that the idea of the tragic arose in response to a new consciousness of history in the late eighteenth century, which spurred theorists to see Greek tragedy as both a unique, historically remote form and a timeless literary genre full of meaning for the present. The book offers a new interpretation of the theories of Schiller, Schelling, Hegel, Holderlin, and others, as mediations between these historicizing and universalizing impulses, and shows the roots of their approaches in earlier discussions of Greek tragedy in Germany, France, and England.
By examining eighteenth-century readings of tragedy and the interactions between idealist thinkers in detail, Genealogy of the Tragic offers the most comprehensive historical account of the tragic to date, as well as the fullest explanation of why and how the idea was used to make sense of modernity. The book argues that idealist theories remain fundamental to contemporary interpretations of Greek tragedy, and calls for a renewed engagement with philosophical questions in criticism of tragedy.
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Why did Greek tragedy and "the tragic" come to be seen as essential to conceptions of modernity? And how has this belief affected modern understandings of Greek drama? In Genealogy of the Tragic, Joshua Billings answers these and related questions by tracing the emergence of the modern theory of the tragic, which was first developed around 1800 by
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Preface xi Note on Translations, Citations, and Abbreviations xv INTRODUCTION: Tragedy and Philosophy around 1800 1 TRAGIC MODERNITIES Chapter 1: Quarreling over Tragedy 19 Ancients and Moderns on Tragedy 21 Nach Athen: Literary Models in Germany 32 Chapter 2: The Antiquity of Tragedy 45 Guillaume Dubois de Rochefort: Tragedy and Cultural Difference 46 Johann Gottfried Herder: Tragedy for the Volk 53 Returns to the Greek: Translation, Philology, Performance 59 TRAGIC THEMES Chapter 3: Revolutionary Freedom 75 The Tragic Sublime: Schiller and Schelling 80 Schiller's System of Tragic Freedom 88 Criticism and Scholarship: A. W. Schlegel and Gottfried Hermann 97 Chapter 4: Greek and Modern Tragedy 105 Friedrich Schlegel: Nature, Art, Revolution 107 Schiller: "The Limits of Ancient and Modern Tragedy" 113 Schelling: Identity and History in the Philosophy of Art 123 Chapter 5: Tragic Theologies 133 A Poetic Religion 135 "Problems of Fate": "The Spirit of Christianity" and Empedocles 139 The Power of the Sacrifice: The Natural Law Essay 150 TRAGIC TEXTS Chapter 6: Hegel's Phenomenology: The Fate of Tragedy 161 The Ethical World of Tragedy 163 Error and Recognition 171 Tragic Knowing and Forgetting 177 The End of Tragedy 184 Chapter 7: Holderlin's Sophocles: Tragedy and Paradox 189 Tragedy and Vaterland 191 Sophocles, Ancient and Modern 196 "The Lawful Calculus" 200 "The Boldest Moment" 205 Vaterlandische Umkehr 212 Exodos: Births of the Tragic 222 Bibliography 235 Index 251
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"There is no body of work as important for understanding the idea of the tragic as German Idealism, which fundamentally changed modernity's notions of tragedy. I can think of no better guide to these formidable writings than Joshua Billings, who takes the reader through them with clarity, deep knowledge, and revelatory exposition. A great achievement, this is a book that scholars and students of tragedy have needed for years."—Simon Goldhill, University of Cambridge
"This is a very fine book—meticulously researched and clearly written. Joshua Billings is in complete control of his material—and his combination of serious purpose and scholarly adroitness is hard to beat. Scholars and students alike will learn much from this study of the tragic as a philosophical ideal, a notion that continues to haunt us today."—James I. Porter, University of California, Irvine
"Readers of Greek tragedy and readers of German Idealism, whether classicists or not, have much to learn from this important book."—Constanze Güthenke, Princeton University
"This is a very fine book—meticulously researched and clearly written. Joshua Billings is in complete control of his material—and his combination of serious purpose and scholarly adroitness is hard to beat. Scholars and students alike will learn much from this study of the tragic as a philosophical ideal, a notion that continues to haunt us today."—James I. Porter, University of California, Irvine
"Readers of Greek tragedy and readers of German Idealism, whether classicists or not, have much to learn from this important book."—Constanze Güthenke, Princeton University
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780691176369
Publisert
2014
Utgiver
Vendor
Princeton University Press
Vekt
425 gr
Høyde
235 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
UU, UP, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
280
Forfatter