Description
What is tragedy? This work argues that it is, at once, art and science -- an absorbing art and precisely observed empirical inquiry into human psychology, whose subject matter is the dilemma of manhood under democracy. The author expands discussion of the idea of the tragic to include music drama in general and the operas of Verdi in particular, and explores the indispensable contribution of tragedy to an understanding of personal and political psychology through discussion of: the political theory of structural injustice resting on the suppression of voice (underlying evils like racism, sexism, and homophobia), a developmental psychology of gender (drawing on the work of Carol Gilligan [the Harvard Project on Women's Psychology, Boy's Development and the Culture of Manhood]), and an interpretation of tragic art (including the expressive role of music in it). Exploration of the tragic impact of patriarchy on democratic voice is at the heart of the power and appeal of Verdi's innovations in musical voice. At its core is a complex psychic geography of patriarchal practices imposed on personal and political relationships (parents to children, siblings to one another, and adult men and women). Such practices -- fundamental to the family, politics, and religion -- enforce demands by forms of physical and psychological violence directed by men and women at anyone who deviates from its demands. Verdi's tragic musical drama speaks of an emotional loss that literally cannot under patriarchy be spoken, namely, what the author calls the tragedy of patriarchy -- a divided psychology that lives in the tension between patriarchal practices and democratic principles, and between the psychological demands of patriarchy and democratic manhood.
About the Author
David A J Richards is Edwin D Webb Professor of Law at New York University, where he teaches Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, and (with Carol Gilligan) a course entitled 'Sexuality, Voice, and Resistance: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Neurobiology, and Politics'.
Reviews
"This brilliant, original book illuminates how the reigning conception of manhood ineluctably leads to tragedy. In Verdi's operas, Richards finds a parallel to Greek tragedy a musical art, honed at a moment of historical transition, that reveals the irreconcilable antagonism between patriarchy and democracy. He explains why Verdi's operas move us so powerfully, and shows us how Verdi's music dramas give expression to a voice that is psychologically and politically vital. This is creative scholarship at its best, a book written at a place where disciplines intersect. Illustrating how Verdi's operas illuminate tragic breaks in human relationships, the author also shows how a personal and political psychology elucidates Verdi's genius. For opera lovers, this book is a gift; to novices it extends an invitation to discover in music drama a way of hearing the underworld' and thus coming to understand emotions and experiences that we resist knowing." -- University Professor, New York University, and author of In a Different Voice and The Birth of Pleasure. "In this complex but rewarding book, Richards (law, NYU) challenges the ill effects that patriarchal societies have placed in the way of individual voices of both men and women, and the ways in which tragedy, as fashioned by ancient Greek playwrights, has occupied a problematic ground between patriarchy and democracy. Beginning with a consideration of some major Greek tragedies, the author moves on to discuss ways in which patriarchal demands mute true voices, and he contrasts the patriarchal and democratic concepts of manhood. Turning to the operas of Verdi, whom he considers the greatest tragedian in the history of opera, Richards finds - specifically in the music - the expression of a psychological truth that works against the demands of patriarchy on those who find them supremely painful. Richards interdisciplinary approach calls on the fields of history, literature, sociology, psychology, and political science, and he also offers his own reflections on matters at hand. For him, Verdis operas are a locus in which characters can express in music the voices that patriarchy has suppressed and thus show the destructive force on women but, more centrally, on men. In Verdis music Richards finds emotions and memories that cannot otherwise be discussed. Recommended." -- Choice.
"This brilliant, original book illuminates how the reigning conception of manhood ineluctably leads to tragedy. In Verdi's operas, Richards finds a parallel to Greek tragedy - a musical art, honed at a moment of historical transition, that reveals the irreconcilable antagonism between patriarchy and democracy. He explains why Verdi's operas move us so powerfully, and shows us how Verdi's music dramas give expression to a voice that is psychologically and politically vital. This is creative scholarship at its best, a book written at a place where disciplines intersect. Illustrating how Verdi's operas illuminate tragic breaks in human relationships, the author also shows how a personal and political psychology elucidates Verdi's genius. For opera lovers, this book is a gift; to novices it extends an invitation to discover in music drama a way of hearing the underworld' and thus coming to understand emotions and experiences that we resist knowing." -- University Professor, New York University, and author of In a Different Voice and The Birth of Pleasure
Book Information
ISBN 9781845190415
Author David A J Richards
Format Hardback
Page Count 210
Imprint Liverpool University Press
Publisher Liverpool University Press
Weight(grams) 460g
About the Author
David A J Richards is Edwin D Webb Professor of Law at New York University, where he teaches Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, and (with Carol Gilligan) a course entitled 'Sexuality, Voice, and Resistance: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Neurobiology, and Politics'.
Reviews
"This brilliant, original book illuminates how the reigning conception of manhood ineluctably leads to tragedy. In Verdi's operas, Richards finds a parallel to Greek tragedy a musical art, honed at a moment of historical transition, that reveals the irreconcilable antagonism between patriarchy and democracy. He explains why Verdi's operas move us so powerfully, and shows us how Verdi's music dramas give expression to a voice that is psychologically and politically vital. This is creative scholarship at its best, a book written at a place where disciplines intersect. Illustrating how Verdi's operas illuminate tragic breaks in human relationships, the author also shows how a personal and political psychology elucidates Verdi's genius. For opera lovers, this book is a gift; to novices it extends an invitation to discover in music drama a way of hearing the underworld' and thus coming to understand emotions and experiences that we resist knowing." -- University Professor, New York University, and author of In a Different Voice and The Birth of Pleasure. "In this complex but rewarding book, Richards (law, NYU) challenges the ill effects that patriarchal societies have placed in the way of individual voices of both men and women, and the ways in which tragedy, as fashioned by ancient Greek playwrights, has occupied a problematic ground between patriarchy and democracy. Beginning with a consideration of some major Greek tragedies, the author moves on to discuss ways in which patriarchal demands mute true voices, and he contrasts the patriarchal and democratic concepts of manhood. Turning to the operas of Verdi, whom he considers the greatest tragedian in the history of opera, Richards finds - specifically in the music - the expression of a psychological truth that works against the demands of patriarchy on those who find them supremely painful. Richards interdisciplinary approach calls on the fields of history, literature, sociology, psychology, and political science, and he also offers his own reflections on matters at hand. For him, Verdis operas are a locus in which characters can express in music the voices that patriarchy has suppressed and thus show the destructive force on women but, more centrally, on men. In Verdis music Richards finds emotions and memories that cannot otherwise be discussed. Recommended." -- Choice.
"This brilliant, original book illuminates how the reigning conception of manhood ineluctably leads to tragedy. In Verdi's operas, Richards finds a parallel to Greek tragedy - a musical art, honed at a moment of historical transition, that reveals the irreconcilable antagonism between patriarchy and democracy. He explains why Verdi's operas move us so powerfully, and shows us how Verdi's music dramas give expression to a voice that is psychologically and politically vital. This is creative scholarship at its best, a book written at a place where disciplines intersect. Illustrating how Verdi's operas illuminate tragic breaks in human relationships, the author also shows how a personal and political psychology elucidates Verdi's genius. For opera lovers, this book is a gift; to novices it extends an invitation to discover in music drama a way of hearing the underworld' and thus coming to understand emotions and experiences that we resist knowing." -- University Professor, New York University, and author of In a Different Voice and The Birth of Pleasure
Book Information
ISBN 9781845190415
Author David A J Richards
Format Hardback
Page Count 210
Imprint Liverpool University Press
Publisher Liverpool University Press
Weight(grams) 460g
