Why Does Tragedy Give Pleasure?
OUP Oxford (2001)
| Abstract | Why does tragedy give pleasure? Why do people who are neither wicked nor depraved enjoy watching plays about suffering or death? Is it because we see horrific matter controlled by majestic art? Or because tragedy actually reaches out to the dark side of human nature? A. D. Nuttall's wide-ranging, lively and engaging book offers a new answer to this perennial question. The 'classical' answer to the question is rooted in Aristotle and rests on the unreality of the tragic presentation: no one really dies; we are free to enjoy watching potentially horrible events controlled and disposed in majestic sequence by art. In the nineteenth century, Nietzsche dared to suggest that Greek tragedy is involved with darkness and unreason and Freud asserted that we are all, at the unconscious level, quite wicked enough to rejoice in death. But the problem persists: how can the conscious mind assent to such enjoyment? Strenuous bodily exercise is pleasurable. Could we, when we respond to a tragedy, be exercising our emotions, preparing for real grief and fear? King Lear actually destroys an expected majestic sequence. Might the pleasure of tragedy have more to do with possible truth than with 'splendid evasion'? | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Buy the book | $47.45 used (14% off) $49.91 new (10% off) $55.00 direct from Amazon Amazon page | |||||||||
| ISBN(s) | 9780198187660 0198187661 | |||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,709 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesElisa Galgut (2001). The Poetry and the Pity: Hume's Account of Tragic Pleasure. British Journal of Aesthetics 41 (4):411-424.
Susan L. Feagin (1983). The Pleasures of Tragedy. American Philosophical Quarterly 20 (1):95 - 104.
Ryan Drake (2010). Wonder, Nature, and the Ends of Tragedy. International Philosophical Quarterly 50 (1):77-91.
Stacie Friend (2007). The Pleasures of Documentary Tragedy. British Journal of Aesthetics 47 (2):184-198.
A. D. Nuttall (1997). Book Review: Why Does Tragedy Give Pleasure? [REVIEW] Philosophy and Literature 21 (2).
Aaron Smuts (2007). The Paradox of Painful Art. Journal of Aesthetic Education 41 (3):59-77.
Elisa Galgut (2009). Tragedy and Reparation. In Pedro Alexis Tabensky (ed.), The Positive Function of Evil. Palgrave Macmillan.
Stephen Halliwell (1998). A. D. Nuttall: Why Does Tragedy Give Pleasure? Pp. X + 110. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. £20. ISBN: 0-19-818371-. The Classical Review 48 (01):205-.
S. Shapshay (2012). The Problem with the Problem of Tragedy: Schopenhauer's Solution Revisited. British Journal of Aesthetics 52 (1):17-32.
Joseph Westfall (2003). Nietzsche and the Approach of Tragedy. International Philosophical Quarterly 43 (3):333-350.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (2000/2008). The Birth of Tragedy. Oxford University Press.
G. R. F. Ferrari (1999). Aristotle's Literary Aesthetics. Phronesis 44 (3):181 - 198.
Ferrari (1999). Aristotle's Literary Aesthetics. Phronesis 44 (3):181-198.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1974). The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism. Gordon Press.
Robert S. Gall (2003). Interrupting Speculation: The Thinking of Heidegger and Greek Tragedy. Continental Philosophy Review 36 (2):177-194.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2012-01-31Total downloads7 ( #133,637 of 549,754 )Recent downloads (6 months)2 ( #37,450 of 549,754 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
