Tragedy: The Basics The Basics Series

Tragedy: The Basics is an accessible and up-to-date introduction to dramatic tragedy. A comprehensive guide for anyone undertaking a study of the genre, it provides a chronological overview and history of tragic theory. Covering tragedy from the classics to the present day, it explains the contextual and theoretical issues which affect the interpretation of tragedy, examining popularly studied key plays in order to show historical change. Including a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading, Tragedy: The Basics is an ideal starting point for anyone studying tragedy in literature or theatre studies.

Introduction

1. Greeks and Romans: Classical Tragedy

Contexts: The Festival of Dionysus at Athens

Aeschylus, The Oresteia

Sophocles, Oedipus the King

Sophocles, Antigone

Euripides, Medea

Euripides, Bacchae

Contexts: Seneca and Roman Tragedy

Seneca, Phaedra

2. ‘When the bad bleed’ ? Early Modern English Tragedy

Contexts: Elizabethan Tragedy

Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy and Revenge Tragedy

Christopher Marlowe, Dr Faustus

William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Contexts: Jacobean Tragedy

William Shakespeare, Othello

William Shakespeare, King Lear

William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

3. Neo-Classicism, Restoration Tragedy and Sentimentality

Contexts

Jean Racine, Phaedra

John Dryden, All for Love

Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d

4. ‘From Hero to Victim’: Romantic Tragedy and After

Contexts

Heinrich von Kleist, The Prince of Homburg

Georg Büchner, Woyzeck

Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler

5. Modernism and Tragedy

Contexts

Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

Eugene O’Neill, Mourning Becomes Electra

Federico Garcia Lorca, Blood Wedding

Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and her Children

Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire

Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

6. The Survival of Tragedy

Contexts

Edward Bond, Lear

Howard Barker, Victory

Tony Kushner, Angels in America

Caryl Churchill, The Skriker

Sarah Kane, Blasted.

Conclusion

Glossary

References

Index

Sean McEvoy teaches Literature at Varndean Sixth Form College in Brighton and the University of Cambridge, UK.