Tragic Play by Christoph Menke

Tragic Play by Christoph Menke

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.

Christoph Menke develops tragedy as a modern mode of understanding in new and interesting waysHis 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

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.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780231145565
ISBN 10	023114556X
Title	Tragic Play
Author	Christoph Menke
Series	Columbia Themes In Philosophy Social Criticism And The Arts
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Columbia University Press
Year published	2009-07-07
Number of pages	248
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.