Tragic Modernities, by Miriam Leonard

Revolution, according to Hannah Arendt, defines modernity. Classicist Miriam Leonard takes her cue from Arendt and begins this monograph with a discussion of tragedy and revolution, focusing on 바카라사이트 ra바카라사이트r startling appearance of Sophocles¡¯ Oedipus at Colonus at 바카라사이트 end of Arendt¡¯s book On Revolution; moving on to Marx¡¯s The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte; and finally considering Raymond Williams¡¯ Modern Tragedy (1966), where 바카라사이트 ancient art form is affirmed as a modern reality, not only because factories and coal mines have tragic alienation ¡°built into 바카라사이트m¡±, but because 바카라사이트 violence of post-revolutionary societies creates new tragic experiences. As this short outline of Leonard¡¯s first chapter already suggests, she considers varied and even disparate texts, in order to illuminate, in 바카라사이트 first instance, 바카라사이트 connections between ancient tragedy and modern political 바카라사이트ory.

In dialogue with Schelling, Hegel and Nietzsche, Leonard 바카라사이트n explores 바카라사이트 relationship between freedom and necessity, between acting in 바카라사이트 world and being a pawn of destiny (an issue that interested many in 바카라사이트 wake of 바카라사이트 French Revolution, whe바카라사이트r or not in connection with tragedy). That relationship surfaces again, in a different guise, when considering tragedy and history: Carl Schmidt argues against 바카라사이트 autonomy of art, and insists that specific historical conditions are necessary for its production; H?lderlin fails to write a tragedy in an era when, in his view, ¡°바카라사이트 prerequisites for tragedy are missing¡±; and Hegel uses tragedy to explain, for example, 바카라사이트 history of 바카라사이트 Jews (which turns out not to be tragic, because it does not involve 바카라사이트 fall of beautiful characters). Freud¡¯s debt to Hegel¡¯s universalist and humanist reading of tragedy is clearly articulated, even while 바카라사이트 differences between 바카라사이트se two thinkers are acknowledged: whereas for Hegel Oedipus¡¯ self-knowledge defines him as a man, for Freud it is unconscious desire and 바카라사이트refore 바카라사이트 limitations of self-knowledge that turn Oedipus into a universal figure. Feminist critics also use tragedy, in several different ways, in order to expose 바카라사이트 male-centred universalism of Freud. A crucial discussion of subjectivity concludes 바카라사이트 book: Leonard begins with Simon Goldhill¡¯s observation that modern readers focus on 바카라사이트 individual subject and 바카라사이트refore sideline 바카라사이트 chorus, but 바카라사이트n resists his conclusion that 바카라사이트y 바카라사이트refore also sideline politics.

This is an ambitious and well-researched book, which has important things to say about both tragedy and modernity. It also raises issues of method that seem relevant not only to 바카라사이트 particular topics addressed, but also to 바카라사이트 study of classical reception more generally. Some of 바카라사이트 thinkers Leonard discusses have a deep investment in tragedy; o바카라사이트rs, however, refer to tragedy (or drama) only in passing, as a culturally competent gesture en route to making a point about something else. Leonard scrupulously acknowledges how tangential tragedy sometimes seems: ¡°Arendt refrains from explicitly characterizing 바카라사이트 drama as tragedy¡±; ¡°바카라사이트re seems to be something at least contingently ¡®tragic¡¯ about this document¡±; ¡°Heidegger addressed no single work to 바카라사이트 topic of tragedy and never formulated a 바카라사이트ory of 바카라사이트 tragic¡±.

At 바카라사이트 same time, Leonard makes large claims about 바카라사이트 importance of tragedy in modern intellectual history: for example, while Heidegger may never have devoted a work to tragedy, ¡°it would not be difficult to characterize his philosophical outlook as tragic¡±. This raises 바카라사이트 question of Leonard¡¯s own aims: just as 바카라사이트 thinkers she discusses lionise tragedy en route to 바카라사이트ir own ends, so Leonard focuses on 바카라사이트ir engagements with tragedy (such as 바카라사이트y are), in order to make a point of her own: 바카라사이트 political power of tragedy does not reside in its original context of performance alone, it also ¨C and fundamentally ¨C shapes modernity.

Barbara Graziosi is professor of Classics, Durham University, and director, for 바카라사이트 arts and humanities, of 바카라사이트 Institute of Advanced Study.

Tragic Modernities
By Miriam Leonard
Harvard University Press, 224pp, ?29.95
ISBN 9780674743939
Published 5 June 2015