Abstract
Despite his extended readings of parts of the Antigone of Sophocles, Heidegger nowhere explicitly sets about giving us a theory of tragedy or a detailed analysis of the essence of tragedy. The following paper seeks to piece together Heidegger's understanding of tragedy and tragic experience by looking to themes in his thinking – particularly his analyses of early Greek thinking – and connecting them both to his scattered references to tragedy and actual examples from Greek tragedy. What we find is that, for Heidegger, tragedy is an interruption of speculation, a refusal to philosophize, a way of showing how things are that resonates with the goal of Heidegger's own thinking.
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Gall, R.S. Interrupting speculation: The thinking of Heidegger and Greek tragedy. Continental Philosophy Review 36, 177–194 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026088501034
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026088501034