Abstract
Tragedy’s overwhelming presence, presaged by the conspicuous absence of Aristotle’s treatise on comedy, has dominated the debate between philosophy and poetry ever since Plato, making tragedy the dominant paradigm for philosophical and performance practices. Over the last century, the gradual blurring of genre distinctions has led to George Steiner’s declaration of the ‘death of tragedy’ and to J. L. Styan’s recognition of the emergence of ‘dark comedy’, giving rise to a growing body of research on comedy. Nevertheless, despite the unprecedented attention, the prejudices against comedy run wide and deep, from philosophical neglect to high-brow conceptions of art all the way to underlying economies of power and social regulation. In consequence, comedy has been side-stepped as an inferior genre or mode, or rehabilitated as a truer or newer form of the tragic. The present study attempts to frame this prejudice as the result of theories of aesthetics and ethics which systematically exclude the comic vision, claiming that it is possible to trace a distinct corollary between the development of theories of genre and the development of philosophical aesthetic categories. The emphasis on the beautiful and the sublime, and its corresponding brand of ethics, can be linked to the flourishing of theories of tragedy, while the systematized rejection of the ugly, the ridiculous, and the ethically ambiguous can be shown to correspond to the floundering of theories of comedy, which remained largely neglected for over two thousand years. Much more than mere literary genres, the terms comedy and tragedy, when applied to the history of Western civilization, reveal the extent of our penchant for the speculative to the detriment of the actual.
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© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Drama, Theatre, and Philosophy: An Introduction
- Notes toward The Philosophy of Theatre
- Philosophical Theatre: Some Reflections on the Concept
- Thinking/Tragedy/Thinking Tragedy: Remarks on the Fate of Theory on Stage
- Dramatic Measures: Comedy as Philosophical Paradigm
- Is the Theatre a Zombie? On the Successful Failures of Émile Zola
- Illusions at the Theatre
- Thinking Theatres beyond Sight: From Reflection to Resonance
- Performing Democracy
- Actorship, parrhesia, and Representation: Remarks on Theatricality and Politics in Hobbes, Rousseau, and Diderot
- Reviews
- Keith Brown and Jim Miller. A Critical Account of English Syntax: Grammar, Meaning, Text. Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language ‒ Advanced. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016, 296 pp., £ 80.00 (hb)/£ 24.99 (pb).
- Craig Williamson (trans.). With an introduction by Tom Shippey. The Complete Old English Poems. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017, lvii + 1189 pp., $ 59.95/£ 52.00.
- Kari Anne Rand.The Index of Middle English Prose: Index to Volumes I–XX. Cambridge: Brewer, 2014, ix + 603 pp., £ 95.00. Patrick J. Horner.The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXI: Manuscripts in the Hatton and e Musaeo Collections, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Cambridge: Brewer, 2014, xx + 112 pp., £ 60.00. Angela M. Lucas. The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXII: Manuscripts in Christ’s, Emmanuel, Jesus, Selwyn and Sidney Sussex Colleges, Peterhouse and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Cambridge: Brewer, 2016, xxiv + 173 pp., £ 60.00. S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson. The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXIII: The Rawlinson Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Cambridge: Brewer, 2017, xl + 367 pp., £ 75.00.
- Henry Ansgar Kelly. The Middle English Bible: A Reassessment. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016, xiv + 349 pp., numerous tables, $ 69.95/£ 45.50.
- Alpo Honkapohja. Alchemy, Medicine, and Commercial Book Production: A Codicological and Linguistic Study of the Voigts-Sloane Manuscript Group. Texts and Traditions 9. Turnhout: Brepols, 2017, xv + 249 pp., 57 figures, 3 plates, 20 tables, € 80.00.
- Verena Olejniczak Lobsien. Shakespeares Exzess: Sympathie und Ökonomie. Berlin: Berlin University Press, 2015, 488 pp., € 38.00.
- Andreas Höfele. No Hamlets: German Shakespeare from Nietzsche to Carl Schmitt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, 352 pp., 17 illustr., £ 55.00.
- Stefan Horlacher (ed.). Transgender and Intersex: Theoretical, Practical, and Artistic Perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, xviii + 306 pp., 17 illustr., £ 60.00/$ 95.00.
- Serenella Iovino and Serpil Oppermann (eds.). Material Ecocriticism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2014, 376 pp., $ 40.00. Alexa Weik von Mossner (ed.). Moving Environments: Affect, Emotion, Ecology, and Film. Waterloo: Wilfried Laurier University Press, 2014, 287 pp., $ 42.99.
- Books Received
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Drama, Theatre, and Philosophy: An Introduction
- Notes toward The Philosophy of Theatre
- Philosophical Theatre: Some Reflections on the Concept
- Thinking/Tragedy/Thinking Tragedy: Remarks on the Fate of Theory on Stage
- Dramatic Measures: Comedy as Philosophical Paradigm
- Is the Theatre a Zombie? On the Successful Failures of Émile Zola
- Illusions at the Theatre
- Thinking Theatres beyond Sight: From Reflection to Resonance
- Performing Democracy
- Actorship, parrhesia, and Representation: Remarks on Theatricality and Politics in Hobbes, Rousseau, and Diderot
- Reviews
- Keith Brown and Jim Miller. A Critical Account of English Syntax: Grammar, Meaning, Text. Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language ‒ Advanced. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016, 296 pp., £ 80.00 (hb)/£ 24.99 (pb).
- Craig Williamson (trans.). With an introduction by Tom Shippey. The Complete Old English Poems. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017, lvii + 1189 pp., $ 59.95/£ 52.00.
- Kari Anne Rand.The Index of Middle English Prose: Index to Volumes I–XX. Cambridge: Brewer, 2014, ix + 603 pp., £ 95.00. Patrick J. Horner.The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXI: Manuscripts in the Hatton and e Musaeo Collections, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Cambridge: Brewer, 2014, xx + 112 pp., £ 60.00. Angela M. Lucas. The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXII: Manuscripts in Christ’s, Emmanuel, Jesus, Selwyn and Sidney Sussex Colleges, Peterhouse and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Cambridge: Brewer, 2016, xxiv + 173 pp., £ 60.00. S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson. The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXIII: The Rawlinson Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Cambridge: Brewer, 2017, xl + 367 pp., £ 75.00.
- Henry Ansgar Kelly. The Middle English Bible: A Reassessment. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016, xiv + 349 pp., numerous tables, $ 69.95/£ 45.50.
- Alpo Honkapohja. Alchemy, Medicine, and Commercial Book Production: A Codicological and Linguistic Study of the Voigts-Sloane Manuscript Group. Texts and Traditions 9. Turnhout: Brepols, 2017, xv + 249 pp., 57 figures, 3 plates, 20 tables, € 80.00.
- Verena Olejniczak Lobsien. Shakespeares Exzess: Sympathie und Ökonomie. Berlin: Berlin University Press, 2015, 488 pp., € 38.00.
- Andreas Höfele. No Hamlets: German Shakespeare from Nietzsche to Carl Schmitt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, 352 pp., 17 illustr., £ 55.00.
- Stefan Horlacher (ed.). Transgender and Intersex: Theoretical, Practical, and Artistic Perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, xviii + 306 pp., 17 illustr., £ 60.00/$ 95.00.
- Serenella Iovino and Serpil Oppermann (eds.). Material Ecocriticism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2014, 376 pp., $ 40.00. Alexa Weik von Mossner (ed.). Moving Environments: Affect, Emotion, Ecology, and Film. Waterloo: Wilfried Laurier University Press, 2014, 287 pp., $ 42.99.
- Books Received