Suffering in tragedy : an exploration guided by Berdyaev
Although most literary critics tacitly acknowledge that suffering is the ground of all tragedy, I have not seen a satisfactory examination of this idea's implications. My aim, while not challenging that basic assumption, is to explore whether a reasonably systematic questioning of the implications can help our understanding and appreciation of tragedy and, more importantly, of individual tragedies. I have found most help in philosophical writings, not so much by those who have written directly about literary tragedy as by those who have written with illumination about suffering in life. Amongst them I have found the greatest help from the Russian Christian existentialist Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948), whose books deal with the varying causes of the suffering entailed in the human condition, the possible responses of the sufferer and the possible effects of those responses. The thesis is an attempt to find whether his various approaches to and comments on life's suffering can be transferred to and illuminate literary tragedy. I begin by examining those aspects of Berdyaev's philosophy that seem most likely to achieve such illumination and then, chapter by chapter, to discover whether one particular aspect of
Runswick, Adrian Lester
Social theory
Suffering in tragedy : an exploration guided by Berdyaev. Although most literary critics tacitly acknowledge that suffering is the ground of all tragedy, I have not seen a satisfactory examination of this idea's implications. My aim, while not challenging that basic assumption, is to explore whether a reasonably systematic questioning of the implications can help our understanding and appreciation of tragedy and, more importantly, of individual tragedies. I have found most help in philosophical writings, not so much by those who have written directly about literary tragedy as by those who have written with illumination about suffering in life. Amongst them I have found the greatest help from the Russian Christian existentialist Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948), whose books deal with the varying causes of the suffering entailed in the human condition, the possible responses of the sufferer and the possible effects of those responses. The thesis is an attempt to find whether his various approaches to and comments on life's suffering can be transferred to and illuminate literary tragedy. I begin by examining those aspects of Berdyaev's philosophy that seem most likely to achieve such illumination and then, chapter by chapter, to discover whether one particular aspect of
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