Tragedia y teatro dramático

by Hans-Thies Lehmann, Claudia Cabrera (Traductora)

Hans-Thies Lehmann, uno de los teóricos teatrales alemanes más importantes de la actualidad, abreva en sus estudios anteriores sobre la tragedia antigua (Teatro y mito) y en su obra de referencia Teatro posdramático, para postular en su nuevo libro una teoría de la tragedia que va desde la Antigüedad hasta algunas manifestaciones escénicas de nuestros días, no necesariamente ligadas al concepto de lo dramático. Aquí explica que el concepto de experiencia trágica está estrechamente vinculado al de experiencia teatral. El núcleo de este estudio lo constituyen la tragedia moderna desde el Renacimiento y la pregunta por la actualidad de la tragedia.

Genres: Theatre

580 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2013

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is undeniably important for any scholar of tragedy. It is an enormous scholarly edifice, and has very sensible things to say about tragedy in the contemporary theatre. But it is also flawed. The author spends hundreds of pages summarising critical theory, and accordingly never develops his own clear terminology in which to express his ideas. He simply excludes discussion of tragic fiction or cinema. He argues that previous books on tragedy have not paid enough attention to staging or performance, and then proceeds to spend about 10 of his 450 pages talking about staging and performance.

That said, Lehmann's overall theory of tragedy is interesting, because he gives a new view of its evolution. His distinction between "predramatic," "dramatic" and "postdramatic" theatre is powerful. His notion that Aeschylus and Sophocles are "predramatic" helps him to interpret their plays insightfully, and I agree with him that his interpretation of them is superior to Hegel's. His notion that tragedy is essentially about "transgression" is also powerful. This is in all essentials the theory of Nietzsche, but of course Nietzsche was not in a position to apply his ideas to twentieth-century theatre, as Lehman does.

If this book were 200 pages long, and included more analysis of the language and staging of his examples, it would have been a 5/5. As it stands, Lehmann's study will have to be an inspiration for the next great book on tragedy, rather than the book itself.