Genealogy of the Tragic: Greek Tragedy and German Philosophy

Description

Why did Greek tragedy and "the tragic" come to be seen as essential to conceptions of modernity? And how has this belief affected modern understandings of Greek drama? In Genealogy of the Tragic, Joshua Billings answers these and related questions by tracing the emergence of the modern theory of the tragic, which was first developed around 1800 by

Joshua Billings is assistant professor of classics and humanities at Yale University.

Winner of a 2015 Charles Goodwin Award of Merit, Society for Classical Studies "[Billings'] Genealogy is an impressive study that pinpoints distinctions, elucidates complexities and helps to show how they arose and why they matter. His readings are adroit and scrupulously contextualized... Here is a book whose subtlety and scope prompt further reflection on profoundly important matters."--Michael Silk, Times Literary Supplement