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This comparative literary study re-evaluates the reciprocal relationship between tragic drama and current approaches to guilt and extenuation. Focussing on Racine but ranging widely, it sheds original light on tragic archetypes (Phaedra, Oedipus, Clytemnestra, Medea and others) through the lenses of performance theory and modern attitudes towards blame.
Tragic drama and legal systems both aim to evaluate the merits of excuses provided on behalf of perpetrators of catastrophic acts. Edward Forman wittily and provocatively explores modern judicial concepts – diminished responsibility, provocation, trauma, ignorance, scapegoating – through the responses of characters in tragedy. Attention is paid to the way in which classical plays (ancient Greek and seventeenth-century French) have been re-interpreted in performance in the light of modern perceptions of human responsibility and helplessness.
Tragic drama and legal systems both aim to evaluate the merits of excuses provided on behalf of perpetrators of catastrophic acts. Edward Forman wittily and provocatively explores modern judicial concepts – diminished responsibility, provocation, trauma, ignorance, scapegoating – through the responses of characters in tragedy. Attention is paid to the way in which classical plays (ancient Greek and seventeenth-century French) have been re-interpreted in performance in the light of modern perceptions of human responsibility and helplessness.
Edward Forman, D.Phil. (Oxford, 1978), has specialized on French theatre of all periods throughout his research and teaching career at Bristol University. His wide-ranging publications include a Historical Dictionary of French Theatre.
Preface
Introduction
1 Approaches to Guilt in Tragedy and Life
2 Performance
3 Words
4 Phèdre
1 Helplessness
1 Fatalism in Racine
2 Agamemnon
3 The Seventeenth Century
4 Divine Authority
5 Genetic Determinism
6 The Sense of the Inevitable
2 Flaws, Errors and Excuses: Theories of Hamartia
1 Aristotle
2 Flaw versus Error
3 Renaissance and Pre-Classical
4 Racine
5 Hamartia Re-Assessed
3 Ignorance
1 Theories
2 Oedipus at Thebes and at Colonus
3 Deianeira
4 Hercules, Agave and Others
5 Credulity – Macbeth and Others
6 Phèdre
7 Oedipus Revisited
4 Diminished Responsibility: Medea and the Crime passionnel
1 Euripides
2 Early-Modern and Modern Medeas
3 Corneille
5 Provocation: The Defence of Clytemnestra
1 Racine
2 Twentieth-Century France: Giraudoux and Sartre
3 Marguerite Yourcenar
4 Jean Anouilh
5 Jean-Jacques Varoujean, Jean-Pierre Giraudoux
6 Saul, King of Israel, as Tragic Hero in French Drama
1 Jean de la Taille
2 Pierre du Ryer
3 Augustin Nadal
4 Voltaire
5 Alphonse de Lamartine
6 André Gide
7 Scapegoats: Passing the Buck to Snakes, Partners, Parents and Others
1 Parents
2 Teachers, Advisors, Counsellors
3 Spouses and Other Partners
4 Devils and Demons
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
1 Approaches to Guilt in Tragedy and Life
2 Performance
3 Words
4 Phèdre
1 Helplessness
1 Fatalism in Racine
2 Agamemnon
3 The Seventeenth Century
4 Divine Authority
5 Genetic Determinism
6 The Sense of the Inevitable
2 Flaws, Errors and Excuses: Theories of Hamartia
1 Aristotle
2 Flaw versus Error
3 Renaissance and Pre-Classical
4 Racine
5 Hamartia Re-Assessed
3 Ignorance
1 Theories
2 Oedipus at Thebes and at Colonus
3 Deianeira
4 Hercules, Agave and Others
5 Credulity – Macbeth and Others
6 Phèdre
7 Oedipus Revisited
4 Diminished Responsibility: Medea and the Crime passionnel
1 Euripides
2 Early-Modern and Modern Medeas
3 Corneille
5 Provocation: The Defence of Clytemnestra
1 Racine
2 Twentieth-Century France: Giraudoux and Sartre
3 Marguerite Yourcenar
4 Jean Anouilh
5 Jean-Jacques Varoujean, Jean-Pierre Giraudoux
6 Saul, King of Israel, as Tragic Hero in French Drama
1 Jean de la Taille
2 Pierre du Ryer
3 Augustin Nadal
4 Voltaire
5 Alphonse de Lamartine
6 André Gide
7 Scapegoats: Passing the Buck to Snakes, Partners, Parents and Others
1 Parents
2 Teachers, Advisors, Counsellors
3 Spouses and Other Partners
4 Devils and Demons
Bibliography
Index
University libraries, students and researchers in French and comparative literature, drama/theatre studies, classics and reception theory, and philosophy. A broader general readership with a sophisticated interest in artistic and ethical issues.