Guilt and Extenuation in Tragedy: Variations on Racinian Excuses (Faux Titre, 445) - Hardcover

Forman, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9004442774 ISBN 13: 9789004442771

Publisher: Brill, 2020

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Brill
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004442774
• ISBN 13: 9789004442771
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 242