Tragic Play

Tragic Playexplores the deep philosophical significance of classic and modern tragedies in order to cast light on the tragic dimensions of contemporary experience. Romanticism, it has often been claimed, brought tragedy to an end, making modernity the age aftertragedy. Christoph Menke opposes this modernist prejudice by arguing that tragedy remains alive in the present in the distinctively new form of the playful, ironic, and self-consciously performative. Through close readings of plays by William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, Heiner Müller, and Botho Strauss, Menke shows how tragedy re-emerges in modernity as "tragedy of play." In Hamlet, Endgame, Philoktet, and Ithaka, Menke integrates philosophical theory with critical readings to investigate shifting terms of judgment, curse, reversal, misfortune, and violence.

Prefatory Note	p. ix
The Excess of Judgment: A Reading of Oedipus Tyrannus	p. 1
"It was I myself": The Shape of Destiny	p. 3
Acting, Knowing, Judging	p. 7
"In the Manner of Tragedy"	p. 11
From Judging to Being Judged: The Story of Oedipus	p. 14
The Juridification of the Oracle	p. 15
Placing a Curse	p. 22
Self-Condemnation	p. 27
The "Curse of the Law"	p. 34
Author and Character: Oedipus's Existence	p. 37
Dramatic Existence	p. 39
Transcendental Dramatics	p. 45
Excursus: The Concept of Tragic Irony	p. 47
The Violence of Judgment: Oedipus's Experience	p. 51
Philosophy and Tragedy	p. 51
The Objectivity of Judgment	p. 53
Oedipus's Lament	p. 60
Errors Great and Small	p. 62
The Paradox in the Judgment of an Error	p. 66
"Learning from Suffering": Tragedy and Life	p. 74
Theoretical Interlude: The Process of Tragedy	p. 83
Toward an Aesthetics of Tragedy: From the Beautiful to Play	p. 87
The Suspension of the Tragic in the Beautiful	p. 87
Contemplation or Reflection	p. 96
Acting Out Action	p. 98
The Freedom of the Actor	p. 102
Promise and Impotence of Play	p. 108
Parody of Tragedy and Tragedy of Parody: Romantic Comedy	p. 110
The Untragic Hero: The Dialectical Lehrstuck	p. 115
Meta-theater, Meta-tragedy	p. 124
The Tragedy of Play	p. 129
Tragedy and Skepticism: On Hamlet	p. 131
Action, Knowledge, Play	p. 134
"Madness" and Irony	p. 143
Dizziness of Reflection: Theater and Tragedy	p. 146
Three Sketches: Beckett, Muller, Strauss	p. 154
The Score of the Feud: Samuel Beckett's Endgame	p. 154
Gladiators of Play: Heiner Muller's Philoktet	p. 167
Never: Botho Strauss's Ithaka	p. 178
Backnotes	p. 189
Bibliography	p. 221
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