The Greeks invented tragedy; and from the age of the Greeks to the present day, tragedy has been seen to be a uniquely powerful and affecting form of art. But what makes it what it is? This challenging volume of twenty-nine new essays has an exceptional range - from Aeschylus to Sean O'Casey, from Aristotle to Rene Girard - but also a consistent focus on the ultimate question: how best to define or understand Greek tragedy in particular and tragedy in general. The contributors, who include many of the world's foremost names in the field of Greek drama, debate the question. They reassess particular Greek plays, from Oresteia to Antigone and Oedipus to Ion; they re-examine Greek tragedy in its cultural and political context; and they relate the tragedy of the Greeks to the serious drama and theoretical perspectives of the modern world, with Shakespeare at the forefront of several essays.

About the Author
Co-founder and co-editor of Dialogos, the Hellenic Studies review, started in 1994.

Reviews
Its twenty-nine essays are of high quality ... the readers of this demanding and highly rewarding book will close it with a heightened sense of the rich complexity of our notion of "the tragic" and new insights that will, in Michael Silk's words, "help move the process of definition and understanding forward". * Times Literary Supplement *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198152590
Author M. S. Silk
Format Paperback
Page Count 576
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 679g
Dimensions(mm) 217mm * 139mm * 31mm