The Transformations of Tragedy: Christian Influences from Early Modern to Modern explores the influence of Christian theology and culture upon the development of post-classical Western tragedy. The volume is divided into three parts: early modern, modern, and contemporary. This series of essays by established and emergent scholars offers a sustained study of Christianitys creative influence upon experimental forms of Western tragic drama.
Both early modern and modern tragedy emerged within periods of remarkable upheaval in Church history, yet Christianitys diverse influence upon tragedy has too often been either ignored or denounced by major tragic theorists. This book contends instead that the history of tragedy cannot be sufficiently theorised without fully registering the impact of Christianity in transition towards modernity.
Recenzijas
"Through rich, powerfully argued case studies this collection provides proof positive of the radically informing relationship between Christianity and understandings of the tragic experience in the sixteenth century and the modern era. The essays take a variety of approaches from the historical materialist to the philosophical and theological, but the twin images of humanity at bay, self-alienated, subject to savage violence; and humanity struggling to understand and represent its collective suffering, victimhood, and capacity for transcendence punctuate the volume, giving it a satisfying, challenging coherence." - Greg Walker, Regius Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, University of Edinburgh
| Acknowledgements |
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| Notes on Contributors |
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| Introduction |
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1 | (22) |
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Fionnuala O'Neill Tonning |
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PART 1 Early Modernity, Tragedy, and Christianity |
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1 Early Modern Tragedy and the Mystery Plays: New Material Evidence |
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23 | (21) |
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2 Christianity, Staging and Ambivalence: Tragedy as Via Negativa in Shakespeare and After |
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44 | (23) |
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67 | (28) |
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Fionnuala O'Neill Tonning |
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4 Pity and Neo-Stoicism in Webster's The Duchess ofMalfi |
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95 | (21) |
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5 Reformation Theology and the Christianization of Tragedy: Neoclassicism, Epistemology and Tragic Spectacle in the Christus Patiens Drama |
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116 | (27) |
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PART 2 Modernity, Tragedy, and Christianity |
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6 The Grave of Greek Tragedy: Hegel Reading Oedipus at Colonus |
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143 | (16) |
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7 Nietzsche's Crossings: Nihilism, Tragedy, Christianity |
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159 | (17) |
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8 `What Festivals of Atonement, What Sacred Games We have to Invent' (Friedrich Nietzsche): Modernist Tragedy after the Death of God |
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176 | (23) |
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9 Modernism, Tragedy, and Christianity: Beckett and the Theatre of Racine |
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199 | (20) |
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PART 3 Tragedy and Christianity in Transformation: Towards the Present |
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10 `Is this the Promised End?' Shakespearean Tragedy and a Christian Tragic Theology for Today |
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219 | (24) |
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11 Transforming the Massacre of the Innocents through Literature, Art, Theatre and Film |
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243 | (52) |
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12 Tragedy, Recognition and the War on Terror |
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295 | (20) |
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| Afterword: Thoughts on Fidelity |
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315 | (12) |
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| Index |
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327 | |
Fionnuala ONeill Tonning is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in English Renaissance Literature at the University of Agder. She is currently completing a monograph on early modern tragedy and Reformation iconoclasm.
Erik Tonning is Professor of British Literature and Culture at the University of Bergen. He is the author of Modernism and Christianity (Palgrave, 2014), and co-editor of Modernism, Christianity and Apocalypse (Brill, 2015) and David Jones: A Christian Modernist? (Brill, 2018).
Jolyon Mitchell is Professor specialising in Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding (with special reference to the Arts) at the University of Edinburgh. His publications include: Promoting Peace, Inciting Violence (Routledge, 2012) and Media Violence and Christian Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Contributors are: Linzy Brady, Paul S. Fiddes, Beatrice Groves, Ronan McDonald, Jolyon Mitchell, Stuart Sillars, Adrian Streete, Olga Taxidou, Erik Tonning, Fionnuala ONeill Tonning, Peter Svare Valeur, Jennifer Wallace, Giles Waller, Rowan Williams
