Product Description

Terry Eagleton′s Tragedy provides a major critical and analytical account of the concept of ′tragedy′ from its origins in the Ancient world right down to the twenty–first century.

• A major new intellectual endeavour from one of the world′s finest, and most controversial, cultural theorists.
  
• Provides an analytical account of the concept of ′tragedy′ from its origins in the ancient world to the present day.
  
• Explores the idea of the ′tragic′ across all genres of writing, as well as in philosophy, politics, religion and psychology, and throughout western culture.
  
• Considers the psychological, religious and socio–political implications and consequences of our fascination with the tragic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #352052 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
"Terry Eagleton’s titanic tryst with the Tragic muse crowns a career devoted to exploring the ideology of aesthetic and political form … This is a brave and bracing book that bridges Eagleton’s secular, socialist ideals with his metaphysical and theological aspirations: a remarkable comedic spirit hovers over this passionate reflection on the temper of tragedy." Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University

"Sweet Violence has all the characteristics that compel the reader, however tested and exasperated, to admire its author. It is long, discursive, packed with illustrations drawn from enormous reading in world literature, perverse and even, quite often, funny." New York Times

"Eagleton has raised a banner for a terrifying but beautiful new seriousness in the arts, directly drawn from our contemporary world. It is an extraordinary achievement and ... an inspiration." The Guardian

"The best book Terry Eagleton has yet written." English Studies

From the Back Cover
In this dazzling book Terry Eagleton provides a comprehensive study of tragedy, all the way from Aeschylus to Edward Albee, dealing with both theory and practice, and moving between ideas of tragedy and analyses of particular works and authors. This amazing tour–de–force steps out beyond the stage to reflect not only on tragic art but also on real–life tragedy. It explores the idea of the tragic in the novel, examining such writers as Melville, Hawthorne, Stendhal, Tolstoy, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Manzoni, Goethe and Mann, as well as English novelists.

With his characteristic brilliance and inventiveness of mind, Eagleton weaves together literature, philosophy, ethics, theology, and political theory. In so doing he makes a major political–philosophical statement drawn from a startling range of Western thought, in the writings of Plato, St Paul, St Augustine, Descartes, Pascal, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Sartre and others.

This book takes serious issue with the idea of ‘the death of tragedy’, and gives a comprehensive survey of definitions of tragedy itself, arguing a radical and controversial case.

About the Author
Terry Eagleton is Professor of Cultural Theory and John Rylands Fellow at the University of Manchester. His numerous works include The Illusions of Postmodernism (1996), Literary Theory: An Introduction (second edition, 1996), The Ideology of the Aesthetic (1990), Scholars and Rebels in Nineteenth Century Ireland (1999), and The Idea of Culture (2000), all published by Blackwell, as are his dramatic writings, St Oscar and Other Plays (1997), and the Eagleton Reader (1997) edited by Stephen Regan. His memoir The Gatekeeper was published in 2002.

Customer Reviews

Eagleton's Sweet Violence: Sweet Horizon ?
The tragic text is something often considered to be the hardest to define in literary terms. Yes, there is Aristotle. Yes, there is the traditional tragic. But Eagleton in his book "Sweet Violence" manages to incapsulate the entire critical list of the tragic within one book. Even the title shows the paradox of the tragic, from Shakespeare to modern day. Using a diversity of critics, the book contains any number of opinions, all balanced carefully (or sometimes quite disdainfully) throughout. A number of different questions arise, and although I personally do not agree with Eagleton's view of Christianity, his ideas are both interesting and a good focal point for a wider argument. Sometimes the way that the narrative simply dismisses old views is abrupt and leaves you thinking "why does he not agree?", but after reading the rest of the tone it slowly becomes obvious. A stimulating and altogether exciting read.