Academic literature on the topic 'Tragedy paradox'

Resumen:El presente artículo propone el examen de cuatro categorías y cuatro paradojas de la experiencia política moderna, que a partir de su problematicidad y significación, pudieran ser repensadas y reinscritas en una «concepción trágica de lo político». Primera paradoja: La «comunidad» se quiere y no se alcanza. Segunda paradoja: la tragedia deviene «sentido trágico». Tercera paradoja: Gubernamentalidad biopolítica: queriendo libertad, la niega. Cuarta paradoja. «melancolía»: despotencia que en su retiro, deviene fuerza.Palabras clave: Comunidad, Tragedia, Biopolítica, Melancolía*******************************************************************Community, tragedy and melancholia: Study for a tragic conception of the PoliticsAbstractThe present article proposes the examination of four categories and four paradoxes of modern politics experience, which as low as their quandary and signification could be re-thought and registered en a “tragic conception of the politics”. Firs paradox: The “community” is wanted but not reached. Second paradox: the tragedy becomes “tragic sense”. Third paradox: Bio-politics government: wishing liberty, it is denied. Fourth paradox: “melancholia”: de strengthen that in its leaving becomes force.Key words: Community, tragedy, bio-politics, melancholia. *********************************************************Comunidade, Tragédia e Melancolia: Estudo para uma ConcepçãoTrágica do PolíticoResumoO presente artigo propõe o exame de quatro categorias e quatro paradoxos da experiência política moderna, que a partir de sua problematicidade e significação, puderam ser repensadas e reinscritas numa «concepção trágica do político». Primeiro paradoxo: a «comunidade» se quer e não se consegue. Segundo paradoxo: a tragédia devem «sentido trágico». Terceiro paradoxo: Governamentalidade biopolítica: querendo liberdade, a nega. Quarto paradoxo. «melancolia»: dês-potência que no seu retiro, devem força.Palavras chave: Comunidade, tragédia, biopolítica, melancolia.

This thesis tackles the pervasiveness of aberration in Senecan tragedy. Aberration infects all aspects of the drama, and it is deeply entwined with Senecan criminality. In my introduction, I define my terminology of the aberrant, and I discuss a series of ongoing scholarly debates on the tragedies, showing how understanding the aberrant in Seneca's dramas can shed new light on these questions. In Chapter 1, I examine the relationship between the language of crime in the plays, tracing the Latin words for crime back to their instances in Republican Roman tragedy and other genres and seeing how Seneca uses and develops this language of crime, creating an unstable fuel for his dramas. In Chapter 2, I consider Seneca's paradoxes. I consider not only verbal manifestations but all the different paradoxes that appear in the dramas: visual paradoxes, paradoxes of infinity, thematic paradoxes, intertextual paradoxes and more. Paradox is not merely a formal feature of Seneca's writing but integral to the structure of each play. Paradox becomes Seneca's means of transforming linguistic aberration into thematic aberration. In Chapter 3, I argue that Senecan landscapes are not just verbal artefacts. Seneca describes his anomalous spaces in ways that connect with how space and place was experienced in Roman culture. Seneca's aberrant spaces give us buildings that are bigger on the inside than the outside and bodies that explode with the emotions within them. In Chapter 4, I probe aberrant behaviour, by considering the ambiguous characters of Hercules and Thyestes. I expand our focus to incorporate Roman notions of appropriate behaviour, reading the dramas and De Beneficiis as reflecting wider socio-cultural concerns, and I question common assumptions about the thematization of theatricality in Senecan tragedy. In both Hercules Furens and Thyestes, crime skews and twists the situation, rendering apparently ethical behaviour aberrant.

Adopting a deconstructionist research approach, this research problematizes prevailing logocentric decision theory and offers a critical enquiry into knowledge constituting the conditions of possibility for ‘nondecision’ at the Atherstone-on-Stour fire of 2nd November 2007 at which four firefighters were tragically killed. The research therefore, makes a philosophical and conceptual contribution, presenting the concept of nondecision as a radically alternative heuristic toward explaining institutional recursive behaviours and practice. Within this research, traditional research notions of the ‘situational specificity’ of an event are abandoned in favour of an exploration of the epistemological context governing conditions for knowledge, discourse and text. Consequently, a deconstructive genealogy research methodology is developed, wherein conventional linear-rationalist research approaches to data collection and analysis are problematized and abandoned for an integrated, iterative approach to the epistemological deconstruction of genealogically sourced archival text. In terms of methodology and praxis, deconstructive genealogy therefore provides opportunities for radical enquiry into institutional knowledge and understanding constituting behaviour and practice in relation to a research case. Case analysis involves the deconstruction of texts concerning institutional fire and rescue (FRS) decision making rules and subsequently involves the genealogical sourcing of influential and contributory narrative themes explicitly cited or immanent within the text, most notably concerning health and safety of firefighters, FRS ‘culture’, and firefighter ethos and identity. Consequently, this study offers a radical enquiry into the FRS institution. Specifically, it rejects and problematizes the tendency within the literature to pursue conventional research approaches which typically reinforce managerialist discourse and performative foundationalist notions of heroism and duty. Ultimately, nondecision, it is suggested, creates space for challenging our thinking, not only concerning the conditions of possibility for life - or death - of firefighters at fires, but future behaviour and practice, with implications for the ethics of ‘decision’ and the ethical governance of institutions and organizations.

O apelo de motivos trágicos nas artes constitui um paradoxo que remonta à Antiguidade clássica, aplicado sobretudo no âmbito das artes dramáticas, denominado Paradoxo da Tragédia. Aristóteles foi o primeiro filósofo a elaborar uma resposta para o mesmo baseada na purgação de emoções negativas do espectador pela sua experiência em contextos ficcionadas, o qual designou de catarse. O objectivo deste trabalho foi resolver o mesmo paradoxo no âmbito da música com motivos trágicos, ou seja, capaz de evocar emoções negativas - em especial a tristeza -, através de explicações conversoras , que consideram que a experiência de emoções negativas é convertida em experiências psicologicamente recompensadoras. Considerando a catarse uma proposta coerente com as explicações conversoras, o trabalho propôs-se a oferecer uma versão adaptável à música. Tendo em conta a relação estabelecida na literatura entre a apreciação de música triste e disposição individual de traços de empatia, esta foi considerada como uma capacidade importante para a resolução do referido paradoxo. Contudo, como é possível que a empatia explique tal conversão? Como empatizar com a música? Para perseguir o objectivo acima descrito, estabeleceram-se duas questões de pesquisa fundamentais que dividiram o trabalho em duas partes: Como é que uma experiência empática permite experienciar emoções negativas através da música? e Como é que a empatia pode explicar um processo catártico na música ? Na primeira parte do trabalho foi elaborada uma confirmação da evocação de sentimentos negativos através da música, indispensável para defender a explicação mencionada, produzida por mecanismos de empatia emocional ( contágio emocional ) ou cognitiva ( imaginação ), caso a resposta tenha origem nas características acústicas da música ou no significado da letra. Além disso, foi destacado o papel dos neurónios-espelho na ponte entre a percepção de emoções na música e a sua apreciação. Na segunda parte do trabalho foi atribuída a exclusiva responsabilidade das recompensas psicológicas aos mecanismos de empatia cognitiva , gerando recompensas com origem no próprio processo empático e na falta de implicações reais associadas com a tristeza provocada pela música. Tais recompensas compõe o processo catártico que leva à purificação de emoções negativas do ouvinte e justifica as suas motivações para ouvir música triste . Para o futuro, sugere-se que seja explorada a relação entre mecanismos homeostáticos de regulação de emoções e da empatia cognitiva, a fim de gerar um melhor entendimento sobre a capacidade de empatizar, bem como, sobre o papel da música como potenciador de tal capacidade, tão importante para as interações humanas a diversos níveis da sociedade.
The appeal of tragic motifs in the arts constitutes a paradox already discussed in Classical Antiquity, above all, in the field of dramatic arts, the known Tragedy Paradox. Aristotle was the first philosopher answering to it through a proposal based on the purging of the negative emotions of the spectator stemmed from the experience of such emotions in fictional contexts, a process called of catharsis . The aim of this work is to solve the same paradox applied to music with tragic motives, i.e. able to evoke negative emotions - especially sadness - through conversionary explanations , which consider that the experience of negative emotions is converted into a psychological rewarding one. Considering catharsis a proposal coherent with such explanations, the work proposes a cathartic process applicable to music. Considering the relationship established in the literature between the personal trait of empathy and the appreciation of sad music, empathy was considered as the key capacity to solve the paradox. However, how to empathize with music? How would empathy explain such conversion? To pursue the objectives described above, two fundamental research questions were established to accomplish such goal: How does an empathic experience allow us to experience negative emotions through music? and How does empathy explain a cathartic process in music? In the first part of the work, it was confirmed the evocation of negative feelings through music indispensable to defend the mentioned explanation, considered to be generated by mechanisms of emotional empathy ( emotional contagion ) or cognitive empathy ( imagination ), whether the emotional response is originated from the acoustic features of music or from the meaning of the letter. Moreover, it was highlighted the role of mirror-neuron system in the link between the perception of emotions in the music and its appreciation. In the second part of the work, it was attributed exclusive responsibility to cognitive empathy mechanisms for the generation psychological rewards, which generate rewards either from the empathic process itself and the lack of real-world implications associated with the sadness-evoked by the music. Such rewards comprise the cathartic process that leads to the purification of listeners’ negative emotions and justifies their motivations to listen to sad music. For the future, it is suggested to explore the relationship between homeostatic mechanisms of emotion regulation and cognitive empathy , in order to generate a better understanding of the ability to empathize, as well as the role of music as a potentiator of such important ability for the core human interactions within society.

"Shakespeare on the Verge: Rhetoric, Tragedy, and the Paradox of Place" describes the ideological geographies of Renaissance England and reads the ways "place" was rhetorically constructed in two of Shakespeare's late tragedies. By ideological geographies I mean the way in which Renaissance men and women understood spatially the constitution of their world--their spatialized "habits of thought." These habits were then undergoing a change from seeing the world as a vertical hierarchy of interrelated and dependent places to seeing it as a horizontal array of discrete places related to one another in a linear manner. Working from the theories of Agamben, Burke, Foucault, and Ong, I argue that Shakespeare constructs a paradox of place in which hierarchically elevated places subsume inferior ones and thereby double them. The paradigmatic example of this phenomenon is the king's mobile court, known at the time as the "Verge," which subsumed the places, the actual palaces and castles, of the king's subjects as it progressed across the kingdom. This phenomenon is paradoxical because, although the king's superior place subsumed those below it, it was always dependent on those inferior places, both logically (there can be no king without his subjects) and materially (as the king traveled, his household relied on the provisions supplied by subjects along the way). This paradox leads Shakespeare to double certain dramatic characters and their environments. It also leads him to set up oppositions between places constructed through violent means and places constructed through the "violence" of rhetoric. In my chapter on King Lear (1605), I argue that Edmund should be read as Lear's double, a doubling made manifest especially in the characters' stage movements as they effectively change places with one another. In Coriolanus (1608), I argue that its hero rejects his double, the Plebeian class of Rome, but that he eventually attempts to reconcile with them in large measure by changing his use of rhetoric. In my reading of these plays, as in my description of Renaissance ideological geographies, I aim to revise the way people look at place on the Shakespearean stage and at the complex interplay in them between physical violence and rhetorical action.
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This chapter examines the paradox of Lyndon Johnson’s presidential leadership. Widely acclaimed for his brilliant transition to the presidency after the national trauma of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, this chapter reveals how LBJ exploited his extraordinary high levels of leadership capital to achieve truly historic legislative successes, notably the passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964), the Voting Rights Act (1965), and a crushing electoral victory in 1964. The chapter also reveals how the very skills and character strengths that made Johnson a domestic tour de force did not translate into foreign policy, with fatal consequences for his presidency once his leadership capital collapsed around his failed policies in Vietnam. Ultimately, character-related weaknesses helped LBJ’s leadership descend into tragedy and collapse.

This chapter chronicles the experience of citizens and public officials in Charleston, South Carolina as they used the polarity approach to address complex and polarized human social challenges. This chapter will first introduce some of the core tenets of polarity theory and practice tools (the Polarity Map®, the five-step “Small” process, and the Polarity Approach for Continuity and Transformation (PACT) assessment) and then relate them contextually in the unfolding of Charleston’s story, which includes a broad range of challenges, which involved a devastating tragedy and its aftermath. The conclusion calls for leaders and organizational systems to broaden competency to supplement “or” thinking with “and” thinking to increase resilience, reduce polarization, and enhance the quality of life for all.