Description
Book SynopsisModern Tragedy, first published in 1966, is a study of the ideas and ideologies which have influenced the production and analysis of tragedy. Williams sees tragedy both in terms of literary tradition and in relation to the tragedies of modern society, of revolution and disorder, and of individual experience.
Modern Tragedy is available only in this Broadview Encore Edition, now edited and with a critical introduction by Pamela McCallum.
Trade Review“A serious, unorthodox book on a much vexed subject. … Is tragedy an event in our lives, or a literary form, or a body of dogma? Williams’ analysis here is especially fine.” — New Society
“An impassioned, powerful book…splendid.” — The Guardian
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
Introduction: Reading Modern Tragedy in the Twenty-First Century
A Note on the Text
Modern Tragedy
- PART ONE: TRAGIC IDEAS
- Tragedy and Experience
- Tragedy and the Tradition
- Tragedy and Contemporary Ideas
- Tragedy and Revolution
- Continuity
- PART TWO: MODERN TRAGIC LITERATURE
- From Hero to Victim: The Making of Liberal Tragedy, to Ibsen and Miller
- Private Tragedy: Strindberg, O’Neill, Tennessee Williams
- Social and Personal Tragedy: Tolstoy and Lawrence
- Tragic Deadlock and Stalemate: Chekhov, Pirandello, Ionesco, Beckett
- Tragic Resignation and Sacrifice: Eliot and Pasternak
- Tragic Despair and Revolt: Camus and Sartre
- A Rejection of Tragedy: Brecht
Works Cited and Further Reading
Index
