A Companion to Tragedy (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture)

A Companion to Tragedy is an essential resource for anyone interested in exploring the role of tragedy in Western history and culture. * Tells the story of the historical development of tragedy from classical Greece to modernity * Features 28 essays by renowned scholars from multiple disciplines, including classics, English, drama, anthropology and philosophy * Broad in its scope and ambition, it considers interpretations of tragedy through religion, philosophy and history * Offers a fresh assessment of Ancient Greek tragedy and demonstrates how the practice of reading tragedy has changed radically in the past two decades

Rebecca Bushnell is Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Her previous publications include Prophesying Tragedy: Sign and Voice in Sophocles' Theban Plays (1988), Tragedies of Tyrants: Political Thought and Theater in the English Renaissance (1990), A Culture of Teaching: Early Modern Humanism in Theory and Practice (1996), and Green Desire: Imagining Early Modern English Gardens (2003).

Notes on Contributors. Acknowledgments. Introduction. Part One: Tragedy and the Gods. Part Two: Tragedy, Philosophy, and Psychoanalysis. Part Three: Tragedy and History. Part Four: Tragedy in Antiquity. Part Five: Renaissance and Baroque Tragedy. Part Six: Neoclassical and Romantic Tragedy. Part Seven: Tragedy and Modernity. Index