Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Tragedy'

Talion is a work of fiction which follows four characters - Freya, whose brother Ben has recently been killed; Slick, a young drug dealer; Abraham, a school teacher; and Nolwazi, a Pretoria police detective - as they deal with the aftermath of a shooting in which they are all involved. Told is short, punchy chapters, the novel follows Freya as she begins to stalk Abraham, who she identifies as her brother's killer, Nolwazi as she tries to solve Ben's murder, a case she cannot give her full attention to, Slick as he tries to maintain his criminality in an increasingly uncontrollable world and Abraham, who must deal with the trauma of his lost family and the desire to protect his only daughter, Sophie. Not a crime novel - Nolwazi will never know the full truth of the case she's been working - but a novel about those who commit crimes and solve them, Talion attempts to capture the dark and messy consequences of grief and revenge, while examining the isolating nature of anger. It is a novel about connections and disconnections, justice and injustice. The novel uses the city as its narrator, hopefully rendering a version of Pretoria not often seen in South African fiction. Written within the spirit of classic tragedy, the tightly controlled plot and heightened tension, as well as the brutal violence, strives to create something more than your average detective novel. A literary and genre hybrid that is both entertaining and unusual, suspenseful and complex.

The curiosity of different beliefs to “tragedy” between the two worlds, Eastern where tragedy is unpleasant and Western where tragedy is praised as high art form since Ancient Greek. The reason that they are very different as two ends from one point and how to present them directly to understandable stage in art forms itself are questioned. This essay is a research into philosophical living and belief relates to tragedy in Eastern and Western views toward tragedy in art forms. The way tragedy has been put differently and the way people treat this feeling. There is a border which is deep-seated into each cultures. The relation of time is used to explain tragedy in Ancient Greek. Western tragedy is big enough to play a main role while Eastern tragedy play a part of the whole in one legend or story. The study of Andy Warhol’s method “Traumatic Realism” which is relevant to starting question explains the direction of using repetition as presentation in order to bring viewers get into trauma at its surface. Picasso’s painting “Tragedy”, Edward Gorey’s storytelling illustration “The Hapless Child”, and Marina Abramovic’s performance “Balkan Baroque”, are used to discuss their techniques and statements based on tragedy from different forms. There is a touching point from Warhol’s and Abramovic’s works. Conclusion talks about the method to present tragedy right there in the work. Selections of pictures are used to tell direction of tragedy in the work. Hierarchy of perception and changing of time in works are explained by Ancient Greek tragedy philosophy and Warhol’s repetition. Feeling is gradually changed. Traces can be found. Time is taking it away.

Shakespeare's ideas about free will and moral choice, as illustrated in his play Macbeth, may have been influenced by Dante's Inferno. Dante was known to Shakespeare's contemporaries, and therefore most likely to the Bard himself. Current literature has not conclusively addressed this topic, and a focused examination is important, because it offers both an additional perspective on free will in Inferno, and adds to the understanding of free will in Macbeth. Read at face value, Macbeth seems to bear no responsibility for his actions because they were preordained by the fates. Dante believed in free will, and Macbeth bears more than one similarity to his Commedia. Read through a Dantean lens, Macbeth has free will - even if choosing not to exercise it. Through the mere contemplation of the four reasons for not killing Duncan, Macbeth recognizes that he has the choice whether to become a traitor, with the consequences of suffering contrapasso damnation. But Macbeth elects to disregard the wisdom passed down in Dante's Commedia, and knowingly commits a heinously immoral act. Shakespeare uses his predecessor Dante as a tool to advocate for human agency and moral choices in a text that would otherwise be fatalistic. Both then and now, Shakespeare sought to influence his audiences' understanding of their own free will. One first has to believe in possessing free will, in order to use it to make the best possible choices. Dante and Shakespeare reaffirm our possession of free will to help us avoid individual and societal tragedies.

This study comprises a translation, textual commentary, and discussion of the fragments of the Old comic dramatist Strattis which engage with tragedy. It forms the centre of a wider examination of the art of paratragedy and tragic parody in Old Comedy because paratragedy represents the earliest reception of tragedy and one that is contemporary with the initial live performances of tragic plays. Ancient and modern scholarship alike has viewed Aristophanes as the dominant figure in the art of paratragedy and tragic parody. Strattis, a contemporary of Aristophanes, was active in the late fifth and early fourth centuries BC and the fragments of his comedies indicate a sustained and wide ranging interaction with contemporary tragedy which is rivalled only by Aristophanic comedy. This is particularly remarkable since the extant corpus of Strattis numbers less than ninety fragments. This work explores the phenomenon of paratragedy beyond Aristophanic paratragedy and raises awareness of the importance of Strattis in this respect. It begins with a survey of paratragedy in other non-Aristophanic fragments of Old Comedy and it examines the various ways that comedy engages with tragedy, indicating the depth and breadth of paratragedy in comic fragments. This provides the foundations on which to examine the fragments of Strattis through a text, translation and commentary on those fragments that engage with tragedy. It leads to a discussion of the works of Strattis overall for their use of tragedy and myth, which allows us to note characteristics of Strattis’ work. This enables a comparison of the paratragedy in the comedies of Strattis and Aristophanes which allows us to reassess the uniqueness of Aristophanic paratragedy and to consider reasons for the popularity of paratragedy in the late fifth century BC.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2007.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-67).
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania residents are proud of their agricultural heritage. They do not want to see their farmland disappear. But the County continues to be developed into residential subdivisions. This thesis explores the inconsistency in the perspectives and actions of residents regarding farmland preservation and development. Contrary to what you might expect, those in the County who want to preserve farmland and those who are developing the land are often the same people. Individuals talk about the importance of saving farmland, even though they just bought a home that was built on what was an active farm. Farmers, who have a deep connection with the County's land and know its importance, choose to develop their farms. It's not a complete mystery as to why this is happening, but it is a wonder how these individuals deal with their personal inconsistencies. How do such individuals confront the inconsistencies that they face? Furthermore, how do they justify their actions regarding the development of farmland? How do these groups of people as individuals see themselves in relation to the conflict between farmland preservation and development? Are they simply ambivalent?
(cont.) In an attempt to find out, I interviewed Lancaster County residents in two locations in the County where a farm had been developed into their single family homes. The farmer owners/developers were interviewed as well. The interviewees respond in numerous ways, but they all expressed a desire for balance. They support farmland preservation efforts, but they also believe that growth is necessary. This "balance" is how they expressed their ambivalence towards the subject. The interviews showed specific ways that information can enlighten the balance between development and farmland preservation. The County government is encouraged to take on the provision of information as a tool of intervention in this area. An informed public can then make better choices as to what the "balance" will look like. Local governments are responsible for implementing this balance by using zoning to control and direct development away from the County's agricultural land. Coordinated action in the County is required to avoid the County's farming character tragically disappearing.
by Valerie Gingrich.
M.C.P.

This study investigates Phillipe Lacoue-Labarthe's claim in "The Caesura of the Speculative" that Hölderlin is a "modern" writer. Its aim is to establish what is at stake in this claim and to evaluate whether it can be substantiated. In Chapter One I discuss the relationship between tragedy and philosophy. I show that the uneasy relationship between philosophy and the arts is premised upon Plato's understanding and judgement of mimesis. I contrast Plato and Aristotle's treatment of poetry by examining how they understand the mimetic process. In Chapter Two I focus on Hölderlin's understanding of the relationship between Ancient Greece and 18th Century Germany. After discussing the background to Hölderlin's work I provide detailed readings of two texts, The Perspective from which We Have to Look at Antiquity, (1799) and the first letter to Böhlendorff, dating from 1801. I argue that in these texts Hölderlin, through his acknowledgement of the divided nature of Greek culture, offers a unique understanding of the relationship between Greece and Germany which isolates him from his contemporaries. In Chapters Three and Four, I examine Hölderlin's understanding of tragedy. After establishing the centrality of the aesthetic presentation for Hölderlin's project I examine the "poetological" writings which date from 1798-1800. I give a close analysis of the implications of Hölderlin's statement that the tragic "is the metaphor of an intellectual intuition" which occurs in the text On the Difference of the Poetic Modes, (1800), showing why the tragic form is central to Hölderlin's poetological project. To illustrate the problems inherent in this project, in Chapter Four I examine Hölderlin's attempts to write a tragic drama which corresponds to his theoretical beliefs. I discuss the two theoretical texts - The Ground to Empedocles and Becoming in Dissolution - which accompany Hölderlin's drama Empedocles. In analysing these texts I argue that there is an inherent tension between the presuppositions of the theory and the way they can be realised in the drama. In Chapter Five, I turn to Hölderlin's final work, his project to translate Sophocles' tragedies. Through close analysis of the theoretical Remarks which accompany the translations, I show how Hölderlin's theoretical and poetological interests in Greece and Tragedy are brought together through this project. I argue that these texts give an insight into the problems which confront Hölderlin's poetological project. However, simultaneously, these texts provide an alternative way of understanding the function of the tragic form. In this discussion I show how the questions concerning the status of dramatic mimesis and the "mimetic" relation between Greece and Germany coincide in the analysis of Sophocles' dramas. In conclusion I return briefly to the questions that I raised in the introduction concerning the status of tragedy in the present time, and assess the accuracy of the claim that Hölderlin is a "modern" thinker.

Orientador: Wilma Patricia Marzari Dinardo Maas
Banca: Natália Corrêa Porto Fadel Barcellos
Banca: Tércio Loureiro Redondo
Resumo: É inegável que a sociedade com o passar dos anos tenha sofrido constantes transformações de ordem tanto social quanto econômica, o que não só promoveu uma mudança no homem moderno, como também passou a se refletir nas artes, possibilitando assim o surgimento do drama moderno como forma de representação desse homem em transformação e suas inquietações. Com o advento do drama moderno não se pode mais pensar em uma única maneira de se conceber o teatro, mas passa-se a considerar a existência do drama em sua pluralidade, na qual suas diversas manifestações buscam ora refletir o homem moderno tal qual ele se apresenta, submetido a um sistema cada vez mais desumano e mesquinho, ora propor um teatro engajado, cujo objetivo seria despertar o homem para que, saindo da inércia em que se encontra, comece a agir contra as injustiças veladas que se tornam cada vez mais frequentes. Friedrich Dürrenmatt, dramaturgo suíço, viveu em um período marcado pela guerra e suas consequências. Tal atmosfera somada a uma tendência de composição híbrida própria ao drama moderno resultaria em uma série de peças que refletem de forma crítica e irônica o homem de seu tempo. O dramaturgo em sua visão sobre a sociedade moderna defendia que nenhum gênero seria mais adequado para representá-la do que a comédia. Ainda que não excluísse a possibilidade do trágico, entendia que esse só seria possível em sua forma híbrida, a tragicomédia. Tomando uma de suas obras mais expressivas, o presente trabalho tem por objeto sua peça tragicômica A visita da velha senhora, publicada pela primeira vez em 1956, buscando analisar de que forma o trágico e o cômico manifestam-se dentro da peça, bem como a maneira como tais aspectos interagem entre si e com as demais características da peça, como, por exemplo, o grotesco. Ademais, se observou também o diálogo estabelecido entre...
Abstract: It is undeniable that the society over the years has undergone constant changes in both social and economic aspects, which not only promoted a change in modern man, but was also reflected in the arts, allowing the emergence of modern drama as a way of representation of the man in transformation and their concerns. With the advent of modern drama it is not possible to think of a single way of conceiving the theater, since now we can consider the existence of the drama in its plurality, in which its various manifestations now seek to reflect the modern man as it is. Therefore, some now propose a committed theater, whose goal would be to awaken the people out of the inertia that they are, urging them to begin to act against the veiled injustices that become more frequent. Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss playwright, lived in a period marked by war and its consequences. This atmosphere coupled with a tendency to a hybrid composition in modern drama would result in a series of plays that reflect critically and ironically the man of his time. The playwright in his vision of modern society argued that no genre would be more appropriate to represent it than comedy. Although he does not exclude the possibility of the tragic, he understood that this would only be possible in a hybrid form, the tragicomedy. Taking one of his most significant plays, this work is focused on his tragicomic play The visit of the old lady, first published in 1956, seeking to examine how the tragic and the comic are manifested within the play, as well as how such features interact with themself and with the other features, such as, for example, the grotesque. Furthermore, it also noted the dialogue between Dürrenmatt and the epic theater of Brecht, his contemporary.
Mestre

Why has the United States, given its status as the sole remaining superpower following its Cold War victory, been unable to translate its preponderance of power into the outcomes it desires? The system established by the United States over the course of the Cold War does not effectively translate its power into influence in the post-Cold War world. In fact, the way US-Soviet competition shaped global affairs created systemic problems, weak and failing states, terrorism, autocracy and human rights abuse, that cannot be solved by the mechanisms of influence the US relied upon to win the Cold War. However, precisely these issues now dominate the American foreign policy agenda as its strategic objective shifted from defeating communism to maintaining the stability of the liberal world order that resulted from communism’s defeat. The United States, reliant on Cold War era mechanisms of influence, lacks the tools to accomplish these new objectives because these mechanisms were designed to exploit or accept the problems of statehood that now plague the liberal world order. Therefore, for the United States to make effective use of its abundance of power, it must either change its tools or its objectives.

The present thesis focuses on the role of tragedy and on the multiple versions of theatricality in selected Essays and Lives of Plutarch. Most interestingly the 'tragic' does not emerge exclusively from the many quotations from the tragedians which are dispersed in the whole of the Plutarchan corpus, especially in his Essays it also emerges from distinctive suggestions of tragedy, tragic imagery, tragic parallels and texturing. Plutarch acknowledges the importance of tragedy in literary education, but is still very ready to criticise what the poets say. Even so, he does not treat tragedy negatively in itself, but figures it as a possibly bad and corrupting thing when it is wrongly transferred to real-life contexts. In this way he requires from his readers thoughtfulness and reflection on that relation between tragedy and real life, while he also makes them reflect on whether there is a distinctive 'tragic stance of life', and if so whether a philosophical viewpoint would cope with real life more constructively. In the Lives there may be less explicit thematic hints of tragedy, yet there is a strong theatricality and dramatisation, including self-dramatisation, in the description of characters, such as Pompey and Caesar, particularly at crucial points of their career and life. By developing the idea that the 'tragic' aspects may relate to the ways in which characters are morally or philosophically deficient or cause them to falter - but if so, in a way that is itself familiar from tragedy - they also relate extremely closely to the characteristics which make the people great. The tragic mindset (this idea will be illustrated from Plutarch's direct references to tragedy as well as his allusions to the theatrical world) offers a fresh angle in reading Plutarch's work and makes the reader engage more in thinking how both 'tragic' and theatre can be used as a tool to explore a hero's distinctiveness in addressing the issues of his world.

This thesis examines the ways in which critics, ancient and modem, have looked at verbal repetitions in the texts of Greek tragedy, in particular those repetitions of lexical words which may seem careless or unintentional. It compares surviving plays (taking a sample of those of Euripides). An index of repetitiveness for each play is calculated; it emerges that while Aeschylus' plays have a wide range, there is a statistically significant difference between those of Sophocles and those of Euripides, the latter being more repetitive. The Prometheus, whose authenticity has been doubted, has a much lower index than any other tragedy examined (though that of the Alexandra of Lycophron is much lower still). A comparison of repetitiveness within a small sample of plays has failed to find systematic differences between passages of dialogue and continuous speeches, or according to the category of word. Some verbal repetitions may not have been in the original texts of tragedies, but may appear in manuscripts because of errors made by copyists. A systematic examination has been made of the manuscript tradition of selected plays to identify the instances where some manuscripts have a reading with a repetition, while others do not. The circumstances in which erroneous repetitions are introduced are identified; one conclusion reached is that copyists sometimes remove genuine repetitions. Modem psychological research has thrown light on the processes of language comprehension and production, in particular a process known as 'priming' whereby an earlier stimulus facilitates the naming of an object. The thesis discusses the relevance of this research to the observed phenomena of verbal repetitions by authors and copyists. The thesis concludes with a detailed examination of passages in three plays, and the remarks of commentators on them. Aesthetic and textual matters are discussed.

This thesis investigates the significance of ritual movements in theatre and society of fifth-century Athens. The focus falls on processional movement, the definitive characteristics of which are drawn from the ancient Greek concept of pompe, i.e. a movement towards a defined destination, involving the conveyance of a ritual symbol (or an object or a person) between specific points of departure and arrival. The social contexts of divine and heroic cult, funerals and weddings prove to be the main occasions for the performance of such processional movements. In the world outside the theatre, processions are shown to be crucial in defining transitions, shaping social relations, and manifesting the action and inviting the attention of the divine. The socio-religious significance of processions is fully appropriated and explored by tragedy. Processional action, recurrently evoked in the tragic plays, proves to be crucial for the articulation of the tragic δρώμενα. This is argued in the collection and analysis of a number of scenes from extant fifth-century tragedy in which processional resonances permeate the action. The interpretation of the scenes in the light of the ritual background which shapes them considerably enhances the understanding and appreciation of the plays as theatrical experience - experience which explores the potential of spatial configurations and visual symbolism, in a context of symbolic communication which is largely defined by participation in the rituals of the community. The thesis argues that the importance of processions in the theatre is inextricably connected with their power - as manifested in the ritual life of the polis - to gather the community and to initiate the process of θεάσασθαι, implicating both active participants and θεαταί in the performed action. Greek tragic theatre builds upon this basic function of processions and activates their power. Thus it also combines their potential to define transitions with the significance of tragic μετάβασις; and with the importance of demarcation of space and transformation of time in the theatre. Ritual experience is activated, reshaped and enlarged, enabling the re-creation and transformation of the experience of the audience. Processions can illuminate the nature of tragedy itself.

Thesis (DLitt)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002.
207 leaves printed single pages, preliminary pages i-xiii and numbered pages 1-195. Includes bibliography.
Digitized at 600 dpi grayscale to pdf format (OCR), using a Bizhub 250 Konica Minolta Scanner.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The object of this study is to examine the expression of tragedy in randomly selected Sesotho novels in two major periods, namely the early period (1925 to 1970s) and the later period (1970s to 1990s). Five Sesotho novels will be discussed in each period and give an indication of tragic expression in that period. It is however not the main emphasis in this work to compare and contrast between the two periods but mainly to observe patterns of tragedy and tragic expressions in Sesotho novels. Chapter One orientates the reader by indicating aspects such as the problem identification, aim of the research, the approach or modus operandi, the scope as well as the organisation of the study, that is, a brief arrangement of chapters and presentation of what would be contained in subsequent chapters. Chapter Two presents the theoretical framework within which the research will be based. As the theoretical framework in this work, aspects of tragedy, namely, character, plot and theme will be discussed. Chapter Three focuses on the early Sesotho tragedies within the literary period 1925 to 1970s. As already indicated, five novels, namely, Chaka, Mphatlalatsane, Moiketsi, Mosali a nkhola, and Leshala Ie tswala molora will be discussed in terms of the theoretical principles suggested in Chapter Two. At the end of the chapter, an analysis of the findings and conclusions will be drawn on tragic expressions in these novels. These novels distinguish themselves as largely classical tragedies (there are modern ones also) in terms of the nature of tragic characters available. Chapter Four examines the later Sesotho tragedies ranging between the period 1970s to 1990s. As in early Sesotho novels, five novels will be discussed with a view to highlight tragic expressions in this period. Peo ena ejetswe ke wena, Mehaladitwe ha e eketheha, Nna ke mang, Ke lesheleshele leo a iphehletseng lona and Lehlaba la lephako will be the novels we analyse. Analysis of the findings will be made and conclusions drawn at the end of the chapter in how tragedy is expressed in all these novels. These novels distinguish themselves as largely modern tragedies in terms of the tragic characters portrayed in them. Chapter Five presents the general conclusions on all the novels discussed in the two periods. A comparison will be made as to how tragic expression differs from one period to another particularly in terms of the three aspects of tragedy. Each novel will be given the individual attention and focussed exclusively as to how it presents tragedy and how perhaps it differs from others.
SESOTHO ABSTRACT: Ka mosebetsi ona wa diphuputso re hlahloba ka moo mahlomola a totobatswang ka teng dingolweng tse kgethilweng dinakong tsena tsa bongodi, e leng ho tloha selemong sa 1925 ho isa selemong sa 1970 le tse hlahlamang esita le nako ya morao e qalang selemong sa 1970 ho isa dilemong tsa 1990 le tse hlahlamang. Re tla hlahloba dipale tse hlano mokgahlelong 0 mong le 0 mong wa nako e le ho totobatsa ka moo mahlomola a hlahiswang ka teng dipaleng tsa Sesotho. Ha se sepheo se seholo sa mosebetsi ona ho bapisa totobatso ya mahlomola mekgahlelong ena ya nako empa sepheo se seholo ke ho bontsha ka moo mahlomola a hlahiswang ka teng dipaleng tsa Sesotho. Kgaolong ya Pele re tla nyenyeletsa mrnadi diphuputsong tsena ka ho mo tsebisa dintlha tsa bohlokwa malebana Ie mosebetsi ona tse kang totobatso ya qaka, sepheo sa phuputso ena, mokgwa oo phuputso e tla etswa ka ona, dintlha tse tla fuputswa esita le tlhophiso ya mosebetsi ona. Ka tlhophiso ya mosebetsi ona re bolela tatelano ya dikgaolo esita le tlhahiso ya kgaolo ka nngwe, ho tse tla latela. Kgaolong ya Bobedi re hlahisa teori kapa moralo wa tsebo 0 tla sebediswa bakeng sa phuputso ena. Tse ding tsa dikarolwana tsa moralo ona wa tsebo e tla ba dikarolo tsa bohlokwa tsa pale ya mahlomola, mme ka hona mosebetsi 0 tla totobatsa mophetwa, moralo wa kgohlano (poloto) le mookotaba. Dintlha tsena tsa moralo wa tsebo di tla sebediswa dipaleng tsa Sesotho tse tla hlahlojwa dikgaolong tse tla latela. Kgaolong ya Boraro re hlahloba dipale tsa Sesotho tse ngotsweng mokgahlelong wa pele wa nako mme e le nako e qalang selemong sa 1925 ho isa selemong sa 1970 le tse mmalwa tse latelang. Jwalo ka ha re se re hlalositse, re tla hlahloba dipale tse hlano e leng Chaka, Mphatlalatsane, Moiketsi, Mosali a nkhola le Leshala le tswala rnolora ho latela dintlha tseo re buileng ka tsona kgaolong ya bobedi. Qetellong ya kgaolo ena re tla hlahloba diqeto tseo re di etsang ho latela tseo re di lemohileng dipaleng tsena malebana Ie tlhahiso ya mahlomola. Dipale tsena ke dipale tsa tlelaseki tse tshwanang le tsa.S ekgerike (le hoja ho ntse ho na le dipale tsa sejwalejwale) ho latela semelo sa mophetwa wa mahlomola. Kgaolong ya Bone re hlahloba dipale tsa mahlomola tsa mokgahlelo wa sejwalejwale mme e le dipale tse ngotsweng nakong ya selemo sa 1970 ho tla tihla dilemong tsa 1990 le tse hlahlamang. Jwalo ka ha re ile ra etsa dipaleng tsa kgale, re tla hlahloba dipale tse hlano e le ho bontsha ka moo mahlomola a totobatswang ka teng paleng tsa Sesotho. Dipale tseo re tla di hlahloba ke Pea ena ejetswe ke wena, Mehaladitwe ha e eketheha, Nna ke mang, Ke lesheleshele lea a iphehletseng lana Ie Lehlaba la lephaka. Ha re se re hlahlobile dipale tsena re tla fana ka diqeto tseo re di tihleletseng mabapi le ka moo mahlomola a hlahiswang ka teng paleng tsena. Dipale tsena di ka tsejwa e le dipale tsa sejwalejwale ho latela mofuta wa mophetwa wa mahlomola ya fumanwang ho tsona. Kgaolong ya Bohlano re fana ka diqeto tse akaretsang malebana Ie dipale tsohle tseo re di hlahlobileng mekgahlelong ena e mmedi ya nako. Re tla bapisa ka moo tlhahiso ya mahlomola e fapaneng ka teng ka lebaka la tshwaetso ya semelo sa mophetwa, diketsahalo kapa moralo esita Ie mookotaba kapa molaetsa. Re tla lekola pale ka nngwe mme re hlahlobe ka moo e hlahisang mahlomola ka teng le ka moo e fapanang le dipale tse ding ka teng.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie is om die voorkoms van die tragedie in geselekteerde Suid-Soetoe romans gedurende hoofsaaklik twee periodes, naamlik, die vroeere periode (1925 tot die 1970's) en die latere periode (1970 tot die 1990's) te ondersoek. Vyf Suid-Soetoe romans sal bespreek word rakende elke periode en sal 'n aanduiding gee van die tragedie gedurende die betrokke periode. Dit is egter nie die hoofdoel van die werk om vergelykings en onderskeidinge tussen die twee periodes te tref nie, maar eerder om tragedie en tragiese elemente binne Suid-Soetoe romans te bespreek. Hoofstuk Een se doel sal wees om die leser te orienteer aangesien dit aspekte soos die probleem identifikasie, die doel van die studie, die omvang en die voorlopige navorsing gemaak in terme van ander navorsingswerke rakende die onderwerp bevat, naamlik, vorige studies rakende die karakter in Suid-Soetoe romans met spesifieke verwysing na tragiese karakters. Die hoofstuk sal ook die uiteensetting van die studie, soos die uitleg van die hoofstukke en inhoud van daaropvolgende hoofstukke bevat, bespreek. Hoofstuk Twee stel die teoretiese raamwerk bekend waarop die navorsing gebasseer is. As deel van die raamwerk, sal aspekte van die tragedie soos karakter, intrige en tema bespreek word. Hierdie teoretiese aspekte sal dan toegepas word op Suid-Soetoe romans in opvolgende hoofstukke. Hoofstuk Drie fokus op die vroeere Suid-Soetoe tragedies binne die literere periode 1925 tot 1970s. Vyf romans, naamlik Chaka, Mphatlalatsane, Moiketsi, Mosali a nkhola en Leshala Ie tswala rnolora sal bespreek word in terme van teoretiese beginsels genoem in Hoofstuk Twee. Aan die einde van die hoofstuk sal 'n analise gemaak word van die bevindinge en gevolgtrekkings rakende die tragedie se voorkoms in hierdie romans. Hierdie romans onderskei hulself grootliks as klassieke tragedies in terme van die tragiese karakters se voorkoms. Hoofstuk Vier ondersoek die latere Suid-Soetoe tragedies gedurende die tydperk 1970 tot 1990. Soos in die vroeere tydperk, sal vyf romans bespreek word met die doel om die aspekte van tragedie te aksentueer. Peo ena e jetswe ke wena, Mehaladitwe ha e eketheha, Nna ke mang, Ke lesheleshele leo a iphehletseng lona en Lehlaba la lephako sal romans wees waarop gefokus word. 'n Analise van die bevindinge en gevolgtrekkings sal gemaak word aan die einde van die hoofstuk en sal die voorkoms van die tragedie in al die romans beskryf. Hierdie romans onderskei hulself hoofsaaklik as moderne tragedies in terme van die tragiese karakters se voorkoms. Hoofstuk Vyf verskaf algemene gevolgtrekkings waartoe gekom is in die voorafgaande bespreking van die genoemde twee periodes. 'n Vergelyking sal gemaak word oor hoe die voorkoms van die tragedie verskil van een periode na die ander, rakende die tragiese figuur. Elke roman sal individuele aandag kry en klem sal gele word op hoe dit verskil van ander romans.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Europe and Eurasia))--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2009.
Thesis Advisor(s): Tsypkin, Mikhail. "March 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on April 23, 2009. Author(s) subject terms: Russia, vodka, demographics, alcoholism Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-63). Also available in print.

This thesis explores the intersection between the study of Shakespearean drama and the theory and practice of early modern dramatic genres. It reassesses the significance of tragedy and the idea of the tragic within three separate yet related generic frames: tragedy, history, and tragicomedy. Behind this research lies the fundamental question of how newly emerging dramatic genres allow Shakespeare to explore tragedy within different aesthetic and dramatic contexts, and of how they allow his writing to move beyond tragedy. The thesis begins by looking at Shakespeare’s deployment of the complex trope of “nothing”. “Nothing” as a rhetorical trope and metaphysical idea appears across many of the tragedies, often becoming a focal point for the dramatic representation of scepticism, loss and nihilism. The trope is often associated with the space of the theatre, and sometimes with the dramaturgy of tragedy itself. However, it is also deployed within the histories and tragicomedies at certain moments which might equally be called tragic. “Nothing” therefore provides a starting-point for thinking about how the genres of history and tragicomedy engage with tragedy. Part I focuses on tragedy, including extended readings of Timon of Athens and King Lear. It explores Shakespearean drama as a response to the pressures of the early modern cultural preoccupation with, and anxiety about, scepticism. Stanley Cavell and other critics of early modern dramatic scepticism have tended to locate this engagement with scepticism within tragedy. However, this section shows that the same sceptical problematic is addressed across Shakespearean dramatic genres, with very different results. It then explores why scepticism should display a particular affinity for tragedy as a dramatic genre. Part II focuses on history, with particular reference to Richard II and Henry V. The trope of “nothing” is used as a starting-point to explore the intersection between Shakespearean history and tragedy. Engaging with Walter Benjamin’s theory of baroque tragedy as Trauerspiel (mourning-plays) rooted in history, it argues that Trauerspiel provides a useful generic framework against which to consider the mournful aesthetic of Shakespeare’s histories. Part III focuses on early modern tragicomedy and The Winter’s Tale, asking how Shakespeare achieves the transition from tragedy to tragicomedy in his later writing. It explores tragicomedy’s background on the early modern stage in theory and practice, paying particular attention to Guarini’s theory that pastoral tragicomedy frees its hearers from melancholy, and to the legacy of medieval religious drama and its engagement with faith and belief. Returning to the trope of “nothing”, this section shows that The Winter’s Tale addresses the same sceptical problematic as the earlier tragedies. Arguing that scepticism opens up a space for tragedy and nihilism in the first half of The Winter’s Tale, it demonstrates that Shakespeare finds in the genre of tragicomedy an aesthetic and dramatic form which allows him to move through, and beyond, the claims of tragedy.

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO
FUNDAÇÃO DE APOIO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DO RIO DE JANEIRO
BOLSA NOTA 10
Esta tese investiga a passagem histórica da antiga questão do sentido da tragédia para a contemporânea constatação de uma tragédia do sentido no drama, culminando na discussão filosófica sobre a ruína da forma dramática tradicional em obras do final do século XIX até meados do XX - em especial, no caso de Samuel Beckett.
This thesis investigates the historic passage from the old issue of the Meaning of Tragedy to the contemporary finding of a Tragedy of Meaning in drama, culminating in the philosophic discussion about the ruin of traditional dramatic form in the works of the late nineteenth until the mid-twentieth century in particular, in the case of Samuel Beckett.

My field of interest concerns the representation of the sea and its prominent presence as a space with multiple dynamics, symbolism and interpretations in ancient Greek tragedy. Using the wanderings of mortals as a main axis, I will attempt to explore how the sea, as an open dramatic milieu, acquires a significant function, which is directly connected with mortals’ destiny. The sea’s unpredictable nature is projected as a metaphysical environment, which could be identified as a boundary between the Greeks and the barbarians, life and death, nostos and nostalgia. Increasingly, recent scholarship has produced a variety of detailed analyses and considerations concerning the spatial dynamics of tragedy. Although the seascape is recognized as an influential landscape at the centre of the Greek world, only a limited amount of scholarly attention has been devoted to this nautical realm as illustrated in ancient Greek tragedy. The aim of this thesis is to discuss the use and the perception of this powerful and effective space in a selection of tragedies, and to focus on the treatments of the sea as an intersection of multiple connotations and references. The thesis concludes that within the context of a world in constant turmoil, journeys at sea can be interpreted as illustrating and revealing, through the adventures and aspirations of mortals, the socio-political and historical framework of the Greek society contemporary with the tragedies. The poetic image of the sea, as expressed in the tragic texts and connected with the capability of the human imagination to re-create a personal vision of history and myth, forms a remarkable topographic environment full of instability which, in many cases, depicts humanity’s ambivalent emotions and uncertain future.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was a product of the era he was at his zenith: the roaring 1920s. By the time he arrived in Los Angeles, he was short on money and the audience for his novels and writing was waning. This work explores his time in L.A., his attitude toward cinema & the Hollywood system, and how he incorporated what he learned from screenwriting into The Last Tycoon, the unfinished novel that Fitzgerald aimed to revive his own career with.

Can we read the Gospel of Mark as tragedy? How so? With what limits? With what results? I depart from previous explorations of these questions by rejecting their definition of tragedy as a work faithful to the dramatic conventions described in Aristotle's Poetics. I build instead on Aristotle's essential definition of tragedy as a work that inspires fear and pity in an audience. Using a narrative-critical approach, which allows a focus on the effects generated by Mark's plot and characters, I conclude that Mark, while more tragic than Matthew, is not clearly tragic or comic: the gospel maintains a careful balance of tragic and comic possibilities, challenging the reader to appropriate the story in her own world and tip the scales towards the comic. The effect of the text, however, is dependent on audience; Matthew's rewriting of and Papias' comments on Mark demonstrate that contemporary readers probably did not perceive Mark as tragic.

The thesis is concerned with the relationship between psychoanalysis and tragedy, and the way in which psychoanalysis has structured its theory by reference to models from tragic drama - in particular, those of Sophocles and Shakespeare. It engages with some of the most recent thinking in contemporary French psychoanalysis, most notably the work of Jean Laplanche, so as to interrogate both Freudian metapsychology and the tragic texts in which it claims to identify its prototypes. Laplanche has ventured an ‘other-centred’ re-reading of the Freudian corpus which seeks to go beyond the tendency of Freud himself, and psychoanalysis more generally, to unify and centralise the human subject in a manner which strays from and occults some of the most radical elements of the psychoanalytic enterprise. The (occulted) specificity of the Freudian discovery, Laplanche proposes, lies in the irreducible otherness of the subject to himself and therefore of the messages by which subjects communicate their desires. I argue that Freud’s recourse to literary models is inextricably bound up with the ‘goings-astray’ in his thinking. Laplanche’s work, I suggest, offers an important perspective from which to consider not only the function which psychoanalysis cells upon them to perform, but also that within them for which Freud and psychoanalysis have remained unable to account. Taking three tragic dramas which, more or less explicitly, have borne a formative impact on Freud’s thought, and which have often been understood to articulate the emergence of ‘the subject’, I attempt to set alongside Freud’s own readings of them, the argument that each figures not the unifying or centralising but the radical decentring of its principal protagonists and their communicative acts. By close textual analyses of these three works, and by reference to their historical and cultural contexts, the crucial Freudian motif of parricide (real or symbolic) which structures and connects them is shown ultimately to be an inescapable and inescapably paradoxical gesture: one of liberty and autonomy at the cost of self-division, and of a dependence at the cost of a certain autonomy.

This thesis investigates Toni Morrison's engagement with tragedy in her novel Beloved. In opposition to late twentieth-century interpretations of Beloved, which see this novel as reordering or revisiting history in order to establish in its characters a sense of self-worth, this thesis understands Beloved as the narrative which calls a halt to the search for a worthy sense of self in a prescribed history. It argues that the form of this novel is designed and arranged in order to present in dramatic time a conception of a consciousness recognisable as already and always existing in African American individuals: that is, before, during and after slavery. This thesis contends that an engagement with tragedy is crucial in the achievement of this end. In an engagement with Morrison's Nobel Lecture (1993), Chapter One argues that the significations of cultural authority are the result of a process in which negotiations of difference take place (Bhabha 2005). In a study of Morrison's engagement with Du Bois's (1897) theory of double consciousness, Chapter Two researches the complex nature of true fulfilment for the marginalized. Du Bois's difficulty in establishing a simple claim to equality is contrasted with Morrison's rejection of the discourses of difference, exclusion and marginalization (Morrison 1993). Chapter Three develops this line of enquiry to include Morrison's adaption of ancient, tragic drama to the demands of African American writing. Morrison's innovatory use of the separate and external configuration of human sensibilities in the form of Beloved is carefully considered in this chapter. Chapter Four engages with theories concerning the imposition of difference and the material conditions of appropriation, and the signifying system it spawns (Guillaumin 1995). It discusses Morrison's aesthetic engagement with the master/slave relationship.

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.

This thesis is an interpretation of three films by the Greek Cypriot director Michael Cacoyannis: Stella, 1955), To koritsi me ta mavra/A Girl in Black, 1956 and To teleftaio psema/A Matter of Dignity, 1958. These films appear early in Cacoyannis' career and very little has been written on them. My thesis seeks to show that they are accomplished and complex films, which merit close attention, both in virtue of their dramatic form and because of the ethical questions they raise regarding individual autonomy and the force of archaic ethical norms. The aim of this thesis is to interpret these films by examining the evolving motivations of their protagonists. The thesis seeks to show that the dramatic form of the films renders the agency of the protagonist partly intransparent. In order to show this, my thesis examines, on the one hand, how characterisation, perspective, character relationships and the development of the drama provide an internal context for agency in each film. On the other hand, the interpretation seeks to tease out the ethical implications and stakes of the dramatic action in each film. These implications, I argue, are structured by a thematic ambivalence running through these films between modernity, understood as subjective freedom, and archaic ethical norms, implying a limit to subjective freedom. In the approach to the films' dramatic form and their ethical implications, I am indebted to Hegel's aesthetic and ethical theory. I use the Hegelian term 'modern tragedy' to characterise both the dramatic form of these films and the ethical situation of their protagonists. I also situate these films within international auteur cinema of the 1950s and early 1960s. The thesis aims, thus, to contribute to scholarship on European auteur cinema of the mid-20th century. It also aims to be a contribution to the study of agency and ethics in film in general.

On 10 February 1964 during naval night exercises off the south coast of Australia, the destroyer HMAS Voyager was lost after colliding with the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne. 82 men were killed. Following the collision, there were two Royal Commissions that sustained a political controversy that lasted for over four years. This thesis examines the loss of Voyager as a watershed in the operational and administrative history of the RAN and as a major event in Australian national history. This study has four broad objectives: to describe the loss of Voyager and the long running controversy that accompanied the disaster; to offer a convincing explanation of the causes of the collision and why two royal commissions concluded that the causes for the disaster were inexplicable; to assess the effect on the RAN, in terms of specific reforms and its influence on Service culture and professional ethos, of the disaster and the inquiries that followed; and finally, to analyse the loss of Voyager as a media and political cause celebre in Australian history. As so little has been written about Voyager using primary sources, this thesis was committed to detailed description of events as well as analysis of themes. This thesis draws upon an extensive body of primary source material in the form of official naval and Royal Commission records to which complete access was given; several large collections of private papers; over one hundred interviews with principal participants; and comprehensive files of press cuttings. The discussion seeks to demonstrate that a series of naval accidents preceding the loss of Voyager contributed in a substantial way to shaping the public reaction to, and political handling of, the disaster; that the method of inquiry played a major role in generating public and political disquiet; that the collision was both a catalyst and stimulus to change in naval operations and reform in naval administration; that the inability of two Royal Commissions to ascertain the causes of the collision and then to public suspicion of a cover-up; and, that the collision was most probably caused by the incorrect relaying of a tactical signal on the bridge of Voyager. The loss of HMAS Voyager appears to be a key event in the development of the RAN, not as a direct result of the collision or its causes, but as a consequence of its long and controversial aftermath.

This thesis traces Ibsen's development as a writer of tragedy through lykke. contingency and happiness. Chapter I explains why notions of chance and happiness are so central to tragedy, and shows how the interests of tragedy and ethics converge in these concepts. Aristotle's arguments in the Poetics for the secularisation of tragedy are examined, along with basic ethical and tragic categories of eudaimonia (happiness) and tuche (luck). The case is then made for seeing Norwegian lykke as a concept straddling both these notions. This leads to the argument that Ibsen performs an analogous secularising gesture on his own tragedies, which explains the development from an excessive reliance on external agencies in his historical tragedies to the highly sophisticated accounts of lykke in later works. Chapter II presents the early historical tragedies from Catilina to Kejser og GaiJlceer, dramas written in 'high tragic' mode, dependent on notions of fate and other forces hostile to human happiness. Chapter ill argues that with Brand, Ibsen turns away from manifestations of contingency, and is more concerned with human agency. Here the spiritual discipline of the hero, not contingency, is pitted against happiness, and the move towards secularisation is discernible. Chapters IV, V and VI focus on Ibsen's realist tragedies Et Dukkehjem, Gengangere and Rosmersholm, secularised tragedies par excellence. Through their explorations of happiness, they participate in philosophical debates such as the affirmation of the ordinary life and utilitarianism. The last two chapters examine Bygmester Solness and John Gabriel Borkman, in which Ibsen returns to an analysis of notions of extra-human agencies and chance as determiners of happiness, not as a return to the cosmologies of his historical tragedies, but as a part of the dramatization of the hero's search for truth.

This thesis is an analysis of the use of the homecoming ('nostos' in Greek) in Greek tragedy. I concentrate not just on the treatment of the nostos-theme within the plot and the imagery of the plays in question but also on nostos as part of Greek cultural experience. In order to illuminate the nature of nostos both as a life-event and as a story-pattern in the early literary tradition I begin with an overview of nostos in life and literature, and then give a detailed account of nostos in the Odyssey, since it is a major example of the nostos-pattern for Greek culture. By considering the literary treatment of nostos in the Odyssey one may understand the nature of nostos as a story-pattern and how that influences audience expectations. This is particularly important since the analysis of nostos in Greek tragedy will be especially related to the Odyssey. Specifically the thesis aims to describe and analyse common elements within the plot and the imagery of the plays that might be called nostos-plays. Primary nostos-plays are those where nostos serves as the fulcrum of the action, such as Aeschylus' 'Persians' and Agamemnon and Sophocles' 'Trachiniae'. The bulk of this study is devoted to the structural use of nostos in these plays. I stress at the outset, however, that the nostos-pattern in Greek tragedy is exploited more widely, and there are many occasions in Greek drama where nostos is an element of the plot. Among these, those with closest association to the treatment of nostos in the second half of the Odyssey are the Orestes-plots (notably Aeschylus' 'Choephori', Sophocles' 'Electra' and Euripides' 'Electra'). I also consider the use of nostos in Euripides' 'Andromache' and 'Heracles' since both plays illustrate that nostos is a means of creative variation on the part of the poet. Interpretation of the specific plays shows that the nostos-pattern common to these plays is a flexible set of conventions with significant variation in each case. Common themes and roles are developed in divergent ways, expectations raised are not necessarily met. Thus the thesis will recognise the variety of specific uses of the nostos-pattern on tragic stage. Finally, I suggest in the Appendix a new reading of Seferis' poem. In particular I relate the return of the exile in Seferis' poem to the return of Orestes, which underlines the idealistic nature of the notion of a return to the same. This notion is embodied in both the nostos-plays and Seferis' poem.

This thesis focuses on The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite, a reception of the ancient Greek tragedy Euripides’ Bacchae by the Nobel Prize winning Nigerian playwright, poet and social critic Wole Soyinka. It will argue that Soyinka’s Bacchae sits at the intersection of Western and African intellectual traditions; the text brings Soyinka’s Nigerian and black African identity into a dialogue with the European intellectual tradition of engagement with ancient Greek tragedy. The tragic texts of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides have been, and remain, central to the literary canon of Graeco-Roman antiquity. These tragedies have been put to very different uses throughout their rich reception history: in the colonial context they functioned as part of a European narrative of cultural hegemony, while postcolonial authors have used them as weapons of resistance to destabilize those very same narratives and to form new identities beyond the shadow of colonialism. Both the circumstances of its genesis and the intellectual influences that Soyinka incorporates into the play make his Bacchae a paradigmatic example of how these historical processes can overlap. Firstly, Soyinka was commissioned to write his tragic reception by the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, a European theatre company. Secondly, he explicitly cites the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whose arguments about Dionysus would inform many European responses to Euripides’ text and tragedy more generally. This thesis argues that postcolonial receptions of ancient Greek tragedy should not just be studied as an uncomplicated expression of non-European perspectives. Cultural multiplicity marks every stage of Soyinka’s Bacchae, and the text draws on and creatively transforms intellectual and artistic debates that span global geographical, cultural and ethnic traditions. By exploring this text and its cultural and intellectual contexts, this thesis will illuminate the intricate cross-cultural dialogues that become apparent when tragedy is read in postcolonial modernity.

Vulnerable children are crucial in Greek tragedy and to the philosophy of suffering that it explores. They attract high levels of emotional concern that spill over from the human arena into the divine. As a means of exposing the presence or absence of the power and influence of the gods, children in tragedy are pivotal voices in the integrity and survival of the tragic family. The literary, social and historical contexts within which this importance falls are set out in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 investigates how tragedy features important roles for vulnerable children and how ritual human sacrifice and murder highlight the importance of divine intervention in family life. Chapter 3 looks at the underlying reasons for parents killing their children and examines how this can destroy the family unit by eradicating the family line and preventing the continuance of name and inheritance. The chapter also analyses how divine interference can override a parent's will and sense of right. Chapter 4 considers how the killing of parents by children destroys the vertical family structure and so threatens a crucial aspect of social order. It analyses how the plays test allegiances, power relations and filial obligations to the limit and, within this context, the involvement of the gods creates different levels of liability and degrees of authority. Chapter 5 shows how when planning to murder the most vulnerable children, or in circumstances of abandonment or illegitimacy, the relative power and influence of the divine and human is brought under conclusive and central scrutiny. From this the Conclusion pinpoints the importance of children in Greek tragedy in (i) showing the family capable of repairing itself and establishing values sufficient for it to recover from the worst events, and (ii) suggesting that this can be done without the involvement, interference, or influence of the gods. This realisation offers a fresh aspect to further analyses of Greek tragedy, its form and implications.