The Tragic Imagination: The Literary Agenda

The Literary Agenda

by Rowan Rowan

The Literary Agenda is a series of short polemical monographs about the importance of literature and of reading in the wider world and about the state of literary education inside schools and universities. The category of "the literary" has always been contentious. What is clear, however, is how increasingly it is dismissed or is unrecognized as a way of thinking or an arena for thought. It is sceptically challenged from within, for example, by the sometimes rival claims of cultural history, contextualized explanation, or media studies. It is shaken from without by even greater by economic exigency and the severe social attitudes that can follow from it; by technological change that may leave the traditional forms of serious human communication looking merely antiquated. For just these reasons this is the right time for renewal, to start reinvigorated work into the meaning and value of literary reading.

This short but thought-provoking volume asks the question, "What is it that tragedy makes us know?" The focus is on tragedy as a mode of representing the experience of radical suffering, pain, or loss, a mode of narrative through which we come to know certain things about ourselves and our world--about its fragility and ours. Through a mixture of historical discussion and close reading of a number of dramatic texts--from Sophocles to Sarah Kane--the book addresses a wide range of how tragedy is defined, whether there is such a thing as "absolute tragedy," various modern attempts to rework the classical heritage and the relation of comedy to tragedy. There is also a fresh discussion of whether religious--particularly Christian--discourse is inimical to the tragic and of the necessary tension between tragic narrative and certain kinds of political as well as religious rhetoric. Rowan Williams argues that tragic drama both articulates failure and frailty and, in affirming the
possibility of narrating the story of traumatic loss, refuses to settle for passivity, resignation, or despair. In this sense, it still shows the trace of its ritual and religious roots. And in challenging two-dimensional models of society, power, humanity and human knowing, it remains an intrinsic part of any fully humanist culture.

Genres: Tragedy, Nonfiction, Theology, Literary Criticism

178 pages, Paperback

Published November 29, 2016

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rowan Williams's 'The Tragic Imagination' is an insightful study of what informs the tragic element in both classical and modern dramatic texts (although in the last chapter, 'Conclusions', William does comment upon the more limited role of epic recitations and novelistic narratives of the genre of tragedy as well). Many might dismiss its distinctively theological outlook (Rowan Williams is an Anglican bishop, poet, and theologian), but even if you do not necessarily share the belief system outlined by Williams, 'The Tragic Imagination' is still one of the more perceptive studies out there and is definitely recommended for theatre and literary critics, even if it might prove to be too confusing for undergraduate students.

[Matthew Codd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had a sliver of the reading comprehension, and high culture of Rowan Williams. Somehow on top of being a great scholar of the church he shows profound skill as one who analyzes Tragedy as drama.

Giving a voice to suffering is an act of resistance to the silence that can seem so oppressive in those times. Speaking, describing, telling the story of tragedy does not resolve the brokenness but it does change things. This book shows us the important role that tragedy plays in saving our selves and our cities.

[Michael]

Just plain brilliant. I loved his discussion of Hegel and the relationship of tragedy and comedy. From beginning to end, I learned more than I thought possible...