Achilles' Choice: Examples of Modern Tragedy (Princeton Essays in Literature) - Hardcover

Lenson, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691644845 ISBN 13: 9780691644844

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Why, during the last two hundred years, when critical achievement in the field of tragedy has been outstanding, has there been little creative practice? David Lenson examines the work of various writers not ordinarily placed in the tragic tradition―among them, Kleist, Goethe, Melville, Yeats, and Faulkner―and suggests that the tradition of tragedy does continue in genres other than drama, that is, in the novel and even in lyric poetry.

The notion of tragedy's migration from one genre to others indicates, however, rather sweeping modifications in the theory of tragedy. Achilles' Choice proposes a structural model for tragic criticism that synthesizes the almost scientific theories predominant since World War II with the irrationalist theories they replaced.

Originally published in 1975.

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About this title

About the Author

Lenson is professor of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691644845
• ISBN 13: 9780691644844
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 194