What do we mean by `tragedy` in present-day usage? When we turn on the news, does a report of the latest atrocity have any connection with the masterpieces of Sophocles, Shakespeare and Racine? What has tragedy been made to mean by dramatists, story-tellers, critics, philosophers, politicians and journalists over the last two and a half millennia? Why do we still read, re-write, and stage these old plays?

This book argues for the continuities between `then` and `now`. Addressing questions about belief, blame, mourning, revenge, pain, witnessing, timing and ending, Adrian Poole demonstrates the age-old significance of our attempts to make sense of terrible suffering.

Table of Contents:
1: Who needs it?
2: Once upon a time
3: The living dead
4: Who`s to blame?
5: Big ideas
6: No laughing matter
7: Words, words, words
8: Good timing
9: Pain and gain

Author Information:
Adrian Poole, Professor of English Literature, University of Cambridge