Modern Tragedy

What distinguishes modern tragedy from other forms of drama? How does it relate to contemporary political and social conditions? To what ends have artists employed the tragic form in different locations during the 20th century? Partly motivated by the urgency of our current situation in an age of ecocidal crisis, Modern Tragedy encompasses a variety of drama from throughout the 20th century. James Moran begins this book with John Millington Synges Riders to the Sea (1904), which shows how environmental awareness might be expressed through tragic drama. Moran also looks at Brechts reworking of Synges drama in the 1937 play Seora Carrars Rifles, and situates Brecht's script in the light of the theatre practitioners broader ideas about tragedy. Brechts tragic thinking informed by Hegel and Marx is contrasted with the Schopenhauerian approach of Samuel Beckett. The volume goes on to examine theatre makers whose ideas were partly motivated by applying an understanding of the tragic narrative of Synges Riders to the Sea to postcolonial contexts. Looking at Derek Walcotts The Sea at Dauphin (1954), and J.P. Clarks The Goat (1961), Modern Tragedy explores how tragedy, a form that is often associated with regressive assumptions about hegemony, might be rethought, and how aspects of the tragic may coincide with the experiences and concerns of authors and audiences of colour.