Tragedy: The Basics is an accessible and up-to-date introduction to dramatic tragedy. Covering tragedy from the classics to the present day, it has a glossary of key terms, a chronology and suggestions for further reading and is an ideal starting point for anyone studying tragedy in literature or theatre studies.

Introduction

1. Greeks and Romans: Classical Tragedy

1. Contexts: The Festival of Dionysus at Athens

   Aeschylus, The Oresteia

   Sophocles, Oedipus the King

   Sophocles, Antigone

   Euripides, Medea

   Euripides, Bacchae

   Contexts: Seneca and Roman Tragedy

   Seneca, Phaedra

2. ‘When the bad bleed’ ? Early Modern English Tragedy

1. Contexts: Elizabethan Tragedy

   Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy and Revenge Tragedy

   Christopher Marlowe, Dr Faustus

   William Shakespeare, Hamlet

   Contexts: Jacobean Tragedy

   William Shakespeare, Othello

   William Shakespeare, King Lear

   William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

   John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

3. Neo-Classicism, Restoration Tragedy and Sentimentality

1. Contexts

   Jean Racine, Phaedra

   John Dryden, All for Love

   Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d

4. ‘From Hero to Victim’: Romantic Tragedy and After

1. Contexts

   Heinrich von Kleist, The Prince of Homburg

   Georg Büchner, Woyzeck

   Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler

5. Modernism and Tragedy

1. Contexts

   Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

   Eugene O’Neill, Mourning Becomes Electra

   Federico Garcia Lorca, Blood Wedding

   Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and her Children

   Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire

   Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

   Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

6. The Survival of Tragedy

Contexts

Edward Bond, Lear

Howard Barker, Victory

Tony Kushner, Angels in America

Caryl Churchill, The Skriker

Sarah Kane, Blasted.

Conclusion

Glossary

References

Index