Why Does Tragedy Give Pleasure?

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A. D. Nuttall (Professor of English and Fellow, Professor of English and Fellow, New College, Oxford)

Why Does Tragedy Give Pleasure?

A. D. Nuttall (Professor of English and Fellow, Professor of English and Fellow, New College, Oxford)

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English

Oxford University Press
01 April 2001

Art & design styles: Classicism; Literary studies: plays & playwrights; Philosophy

Why does tragedy give pleasure? Why do people who are neither wicked nor depraved enjoy watching plays about suffering or death?

Is it because we see horrific matter controlled by majestic art?

Or because tragedy actually reaches out to the dark side of human nature? A. D. Nuttall's wide-ranging, lively and engaging book offers a new answer to this perennial question. The 'classical' answer to the question is rooted in Aristotle and rests on the unreality of the tragic presentation: no one really dies; we are free to enjoy watching potentially horrible events controlled and disposed in majestic sequence by art. In the nineteenth century, Nietzsche dared to suggest that Greek tragedy is involved with darkness and unreason and Freud asserted that we are all, at the unconscious level, quite wicked enough to rejoice in death. But the problem persists: how can the conscious mind assent to such enjoyment? Strenuous bodily exercise is pleasurable. Could we, when we respond to a tragedy, be exercising our emotions, preparing for real grief and fear? King Lear actually destroys an expected majestic sequence. Might the pleasure of tragedy have more to do with possible truth than with 'splendid evasion'?

By: A. D. Nuttall (Professor of English and Fellow Professor of English and Fellow New College Oxford)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 136mm, Width: 216mm, Spine: 9mm
Weight: 168g
ISBN: 9780198187660
ISBN 10: 0198187661
Pages: 120
Publication Date: 01 April 2001
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

A. D. Nuttall is Professor of English and Fellow of New College, Oxford

Reviews for Why Does Tragedy Give Pleasure?

Why Does Tragedy Give Pleasure? offers a highly engaging discussion of its title question and a very suggestive answer....I would recommend that any one who wants to take his or her own run at the problem of tragedy should first spend some time engaging with the arguments in Why Does Tragedy givePleasure?. --Review This delightful little book not only attracts the reader with its enigmatic title, it ensnares her into following its argument like a detective story, whose solution is not disclosed before its final pages. In a style more reminiscent of poetry than a philological treatise it deserves to be handled with care.... --Bryn Mawr Classical Review