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Table of Contents
I. The philosophy of the tragic and the poetics of tragedy
1. Our tragic culture
The early modern conception of tragedy
The philosophy of the tragic
Literary form, the philosophy of history, and the canon
Tragedy born anew from the spirit of music?
Decadence and primitivism
The post-structural assault on tragic freedom
Reassessing the legacy of idealism
Approaching the world we have lost
2. An early modern poetics of tragedy
Definitions
The objects of tragic imitation
Fables
Manners
Sentiments
Diction
The player's passions
Spectacle
The chorus
Tragic pleasure
II. The world we have lost
3. Simple pathetic tragedy
Classical exemplars
Recovery and invention: Trissino's Sofonisba (1515)
A theoretical interlude
Racine's Bérénice (1670)
Milton's Samson Agonistes (1671)
Simplicity and reformation
Gluck's Alceste (1779)
La Harpe's philoctète (1781)
From pathos to moral freedom
4. Operatic discoveries: The complex tragedy with a happy ending
Did tragic heroes sing?
Euripides and the operatic repertoire
The Euripidean tragedy of anticipated woe
Idomeneo and the tragedy of averted sacrifice
5. Counter-reformation tragedy: The laurel and the cypress
Tragedy as spiritual exercise
Jesuit defenses of counter-reformation tragedy
Enlightened critiques and idealist defenses
Final reckonings
Appendix to chapter 5: Excerpts from Stefonio's Crispus
6. History as tragedy, tragedy as design: Where Shakespeare and Dryden part company
Antony and Cleopatra as a great occurrence
The art of portraiture
Sublimity raised from the very elements of littleness
Dryden's artificial order
Portraiture and history painting
Tides that swell and retire to seas
Language
The world well lost
Tragedy and history.
1. Our tragic culture
The early modern conception of tragedy
The philosophy of the tragic
Literary form, the philosophy of history, and the canon
Tragedy born anew from the spirit of music?
Decadence and primitivism
The post-structural assault on tragic freedom
Reassessing the legacy of idealism
Approaching the world we have lost
2. An early modern poetics of tragedy
Definitions
The objects of tragic imitation
Fables
Manners
Sentiments
Diction
The player's passions
Spectacle
The chorus
Tragic pleasure
II. The world we have lost
3. Simple pathetic tragedy
Classical exemplars
Recovery and invention: Trissino's Sofonisba (1515)
A theoretical interlude
Racine's Bérénice (1670)
Milton's Samson Agonistes (1671)
Simplicity and reformation
Gluck's Alceste (1779)
La Harpe's philoctète (1781)
From pathos to moral freedom
4. Operatic discoveries: The complex tragedy with a happy ending
Did tragic heroes sing?
Euripides and the operatic repertoire
The Euripidean tragedy of anticipated woe
Idomeneo and the tragedy of averted sacrifice
5. Counter-reformation tragedy: The laurel and the cypress
Tragedy as spiritual exercise
Jesuit defenses of counter-reformation tragedy
Enlightened critiques and idealist defenses
Final reckonings
Appendix to chapter 5: Excerpts from Stefonio's Crispus
6. History as tragedy, tragedy as design: Where Shakespeare and Dryden part company
Antony and Cleopatra as a great occurrence
The art of portraiture
Sublimity raised from the very elements of littleness
Dryden's artificial order
Portraiture and history painting
Tides that swell and retire to seas
Language
The world well lost
Tragedy and history.