"Tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character."
Analysis of the works of playwrights such as Seneca (Hercules Furens), Accius (Atreus), and Ennius (Thyestes).
Greek Tragedy: The origin of Tragedy lies in Ancient Greek Theater. Learning about the original forms, playwrights, and themes will help you understand the later developments in Latin literature.
Roman Tragedy: Roman writers took Greek Tragedy and adapted it to their own culture, adding their own elements.
Senecan Tragedy: Seneca the Younger was a Roman philosopher and tragedian who wrote plays in the style of Greek tragedy. His work had a significant impact on the development of later Latin literature.
Tragedy Themes: Tragedy often explores themes such as fate, hubris, and the human condition. Understanding these themes will help you better appreciate Tragedy literature.
Tragic Hero: The tragic hero is a central character who typically meets a devastating end. Understanding this character type is crucial to understand Tragedy literature.
Tragedy Structure: Tragedy is known for following a specific structure, with five main parts: the exposition, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution.
Tragedy Language: Tragedy is known for its elevated and poetic language. Understanding the conventions and techniques of Tragedy language will help you appreciate the literature.
Aristotle's Poetics: Aristotle's Poetics is a foundational text in the study of Tragedy. Understanding his ideas about plot, character, thought, diction, and spectacle will help you appreciate Tragedy literature.
Theatrical Production: Tragedy was originally performed in theaters, and understanding the conventions of ancient and modern productions will help you appreciate Tragedy literature.
Reception History: Tragedy has been adapted and reinterpreted throughout history. Learning about the various adaptations and their significance will help you appreciate Tragedy literature in context.
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles: This tragedy follows the story of Oedipus, who unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother.
Medea by Euripides: This tragedy follows the story of a woman named Medea, who seeks revenge on her husband when he leaves her for another woman.
Agamemnon by Aeschylus: This tragedy follows the story of King Agamemnon as he returns home from the Trojan War and is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra.
The Bacchae by Euripides: This tragedy follows the story of King Pentheus and his attempt to suppress the worship of the god Dionysus, leading to his own destruction.
Antigone by Sophocles: This tragedy follows the story of Antigone, who defies the king's law and gives her brother a proper burial, leading to her own tragic end.
The Aeneid by Virgil: This epic poem tells the story of the Trojan warrior Aeneas and his journey to Italy to found the Roman empire.
The Metamorphoses by Ovid: This epic poem tells many stories from Greek and Roman mythology, including the tales of Pyramus and Thisbe, Narcissus and Echo, and many others.
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare: This play tells the story of the assassination of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar and its aftermath.
"The intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsis, or a 'pain [that] awakens pleasure,' for the audience."
"The term tragedy often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilization."
"There survives only a fraction of the work of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, as well as many fragments from other poets."
"The singular articulations in the works of Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Jean Racine, and Friedrich Schiller to the more recent naturalistic tragedy of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg."
"Tragedy has remained an important site of cultural experimentation, negotiation, struggle, and change."
"A long line of philosophers... have analysed, speculated upon, and criticised the genre."
"In the wake of Aristotle's Poetics, tragedy has been used to make genre distinctions... tragedy is opposed to comedy."
"Drama, in the narrow sense, cuts across the traditional division between comedy and tragedy."
"Both Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal define their epic theatre projects against models of tragedy."
"Taxidou, however, reads epic theatre as an incorporation of tragic functions and its treatments of mourning and speculation."
"The intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsis, or a 'pain [that] awakens pleasure,' for the audience."
"The term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect of cultural identity and historical continuity."
"Tragedy has remained an important site of cultural experimentation, negotiation, struggle, and change."
"The term tragedy often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilization."
"That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous."
"A long line of philosophers... have analysed, speculated upon, and criticised the genre."
"In the modern era, tragedy has also been defined against drama, melodrama, the tragicomic, and epic theatre."
"Samuel Beckett's modernist meditations on death, loss and suffering; Heiner Müller postmodernist reworkings of the tragic canon."
"The Greeks and the Elizabethans, Hellenes and Christians."