Modern Tragedy

"What distinguishes modern tragedy from other forms of drama? How does it relate to contemporary political and social conditions? To what ends have artists employed the tragic form in different locations during the 20th century? The first chapter of this book is motivated by the urgency of our current situation in an age of ecocidal crisis. It focuses upon John Millington Synge's Riders to the Sea (1904), and shows how environmental awareness might be expressed through tragic drama. The second chapter takes a detailed look at Brecht's reworking of Synge's drama in the 1937 play Señora Carrar's Rifles. Examining Brecht's script in the light of his broader ideas about tragedy, this study notes that Brecht felt earlier tragedies tended to leave their audiences emotionally stimulated but stunted in terms of political understanding and response. This chapter highlights how Brecht's ideas of tragedy were informed by Hegel and Marx, and contrasts Brecht's approach with the Schopenhauerian thinking of Samuel Beckett. The third chapter examines theatre makers whose ideas were partly motivated by applying an understanding of the tragic narrative of Synge's Riders to the Sea to postcolonial contexts. This part of the book looks at Derek Walcott's The Sea at Dauphin (1954), and J.P. Clark's The Goat (1961). It explores how tragedy, a form that is often associated with regressive assumptions about hegemony, might be rethought, and how aspects of the tragic may coincide with the experiences and concerns of non-white authors and audiences"--