Introduction to Tragedy

An Introduction to Tragedy is a comprehensive survey of tragedy through the ages as encountered in drama, epic poetry, and prose. This integrated humanities course explores the genre as interpreted through many different time periods, cultures, and metaphysical frameworks, and provokes contemplation as to why the tragic has held sway over the thoughts and imaginations of mankind for thousands of years. It also considers tragedy in light of Christian teaching and scripture.

This 32-week course consists of four eight-week quarters. Each quarter, students will be assigned a weekly pre-recorded lecture, reading appropriate for the week, relevant discussion questions, a weekly 1.5-hour live recitation, and one 1200-word essay. Students will also be assigned a mid-term and a final exam. In the course of the year, the students will have read all of the texts listed below, listened to 32 lectures, written four essays, and attended 32 live recitations to discuss the texts in Socratic fashion.

Course Objectives

1. To develop the habit of active, close reading and apply it to lengthy texts.
2. To develop the ability to think and write syntopically about the authors, their writings, and the times and contexts in which they wrote.
3. To understand the conventions of the different literary genres of drama, poetry, and prose - how they are alike and how they differ.
4. To foster an appreciation of the depths of insight into the human condition to be gleaned from writers and thinkers of the past.
5. To instill a love of learning and learned discussion in the mind of the student.

Texts:

• Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound
• Sophocles, Oedipus the King
• Euripides, Medea
• William Shakespeare, Macbeth
• William Shakespeare, King Lear
• John Milton, Paradise Lost
• Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
• Aristotle, Poetics
• Selections from other authors will be provided as PDFs