Tragedy and dramatic theatre

This comprehensive, authoritative account of tragedy is the culmination of Hans-Thies Lehmann's groundbreaking contributions to theatre and performance scholarship. It is a major milestone in our understanding of this core foundation of the dramatic arts. From the philosophical roots and theories of tragedy, through its inextricable relationship with drama, to its impact upon post-dramatic forms, this is the definitive work in its field. Lehmann plots a course through the history of dramatic thought, taking in Aristotle, Plato, Seneca, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Lacan, Shakespeare, Schiller, Holderlin, Wagner, Maeterlinck, Yeats, Brecht, Kantor, Heiner Müller and Sarah Kane.

Theory of tragedy and theatrical experience -- Tragic experience and aesthetic experience -- Tragedy after drama -- "Dramatic tragedy" and the core tragic motif -- Overview -- Contemporary tragedy -- pt. I Theory/theatre/the tragic -- 1. Palaia diaphora -- an "old quarrel" between philosophical theory and tragedy -- Aristotelian themes: "mythos", logos, catharsis, anagnorisis -- Chorus, text, performance -- Philosophy and tragedy: a rivalry -- Plato, mimesis, the state -- anti-tragic theatre of philosophy -- Phantasia and "seeing" -- ghostly, terror, death -- Tragic experience -- Distance and dis-dance, beyond form -- Shape, artist, do not speak! -- "vegetal" hero, experience, concept -- "Stammerings in a foreign language" -- Thinking on the stage -- 2. Approaches to the tragic -- tragic mode -- tragic in everyday language and in the study of literature and theatre -- Aspects of the tragic -- Two models: conflict and transgression -- Versions of transgression -- 3. Casus Seneca: Tragedy and the hyperbole of revenge -- Hyperbole, nefas, furor -- Revenge and the tragic theatre -- "Medea fiam" -- subject as hyperbole -- 4. Theatre/experience and the tragic -- On the concept of experi…