CL 258: Tragedy and Philosophy
Prof. Anthony J. Cascardi
Course Description
Beginning with Plato’s response to the tragic poets, and continuing through the work of figures such as Hegel and Nietzsche, the development of philosophy in the Western tradition has been intimately linked to the fate of tragedy. Indeed, it could be said that philosophy has always had to contend with tragedy. What forces have determined the philosophical responses to tragedy? This seminar will center around constellations of tragedy and philosophy and will concentrate on the question: what might tragedy know that philosophy would like to suppress? Special attention will be paid to a range of issues in moral philosophy, aesthetics, epistemology, political theory, psychology and the philosophy of action. We will begin with a reading of Oedipus Rex and Antigone in conjunction with works by Plato, Aristotle, and Hegel, and will proceed from there to the early modern period and to modernity, reading Shakespeare, Racine, and Calderón in conjunction with Descartes and Hume. We will explore Kant on the sublime, Walter Benjamin on the Trauerspiel, and Stanley Cavell on problems of epistemology and acknowledgment. In considering the history of tragedy we will also take up the matter of its entanglement with other genres, including the novel and opera, reading works by Nietzsche (The Birth of Tragedy) and Žižek and Dolar (Opera’s Second Death) in relation to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. (There will be an opportunity for a sound and/or video presentation of the opera.) Time and student interest permitting, the seminar will re-visit the problem of the pleasures of tragedy in relation to psychoanalysis and the question of recognition in contemporary social and political contexts.
Requirements
Regular attendance and participation in seminar meetings are required. Rather than present an oral report, each student will be responsible for leading one of the seminar meetings and coordinating the discussion beginning in week 3. A final paper of approx. 20 pages is due by email and in hard copy at 220 Stephens Hall on the last day of the semester (May 18). Paper topics are due for submission no later than March 14. Students are encouraged to range widely for the paper. The only “requirement” is that the paper must treat at least one tragedy and one substantial work of philosophy. Please note that students submitting papers after May 18 will be graded Incomplete.
Materials
Books are available at the Cal Student Store and on line.
Course Reader is available at Copy Central on Bancroft Avenue.
Other materials will be distributed in class.
Syllabus and Readings
Class 1 (1/17). Introduction
Classes 2-3 (1/24, 1/31)
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
Adriana Cavarero, “The Story of Oedipus” (course reader)
Alexander Krappe, “Is the Legend of Oedipus a Folktale?”(course reader)
Giorgios Megas, “On the Oedipus Myth” (course reader)
Plato, Republic, books VI-VII, X (course reader)
Nussbaum, “Luck and Ethics”; “The Republic: True Value and the Standpoint of Perfection”; and “Tragedy and Self-Sufficiency: Plato and Aristotle on Pity and Fear” (course reader)
Class 4. (2/7)
Aristotle, Poetics
Class 5. (2/14)
Sophocles, Antigone
Nussbaum, “The Antigone: Conflict, Vision and Simplification” (course reader)
Hegel on Antigone from Phenomenology of Spirit (course reader)
Lacan, “The Essence of Tragedy” (course reader)
Class 6. (2/21)
Shakespeare, King Lear
Descartes, Meditations and Discourse on Method
Stanley Cavell, “The Avoidance of Love”(course reader)
Class 7. (2/28)
Shakespeare, Othello
Stanley Cavell, “Othello and the Stake of the Other” (course reader)
(3/7: class will be rescheduled)
Class 8. (3/14)
Calderón de la Barca, La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream)
Walter Benjamin, Ursprung des Deutschen Trauerspiels (Origins of German Tragic Drama)
Class 9. (3/21)
Racine, Phèdre
Recommended: Euripides, Hippolytus; Roland Barthes, “Racinian Man (Phèdre)” from On Racine (photocopy); Leo Bersani, “Racine, Psychoanalysis and Oedipus,” from A Future for Astyanax (photocopy)
(3/28: Spring break)
Class 10. (4/4)
Hume “On Tragedy” (course reader)
Kant, “Analytic of the Sublime” from Critique of Judgment
Hegel, excerpts from Phenomenology of Spirit (course reader)
Beistegui, “Hegel” Or the Tragedy of Thinking”(course reader)
Class 11. (4/11)
Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy; “Der Fall Wagner”; “Nietzsche Contra Wagner” (The Birth of Tragedy; “The Wagner Case”; “Nietzsche Contra Wagner”) (course reader);
Silk and Stern, “Tragedy, Music, and Aesthetics” (course reader)
Class 12-13. (4/18, 4/25)
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde (sound recording, photocopies, and video)
Joseph Bédier, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult
Theodor Adorno “Music Drama” from In Search of Wagner (course reader)
Slavoj Žiźek “I Do Not Order My Dreams” in Žiźek and Dolar, Opera’s Second Death
Class 14. (5/2)
Horkheimer and Adorno, “The Concept of Enlightenment” (course reader)
Jay Bernstein: “The Horror of Nonidentity: Cindy Sherman’s Tragic Modernism” (course reader)
Class 15. (5/9) Summary and Wrap-Up Books and Photocopies
Sophocles, 2, King Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. Paperback. ISBN 0 8122 1666 0
Adriana Cavarero, “The Story of Oedipus” (photocopy)
Alexander Krappe, “Is the Legend of Oedipus a Folktale?”(photocopy)
Giorgios Megas, “On the Oedipus Myth” (photocopy)
Jacques Lacan, “The Essence of Tragedy” (photocopy)
Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit (excerpts; photocopies)
Plato, excerpts from The Republic and The Laws (Republic 367-403; Republic VI-VII and X; Laws (choose excerpts)
Martha Nussbaum The Fragility of Goodness (excerpts/photocopies); “Tragedy and Self-Sufficiency: Plato and Aristotle on Pity and Fear” (photocopy)
Aristotle, Poetics, trans. Butcher, ed. Fergusson. NY: Hill and Wang, 1961, reprinted 1989. Paperback ISBN 8090-0527-1
Shakespeare, King Lear. Arden, 3rd ed. Paperback 1997. ISBN 1903436591
Shakespeare, Othello
Descartes, Discourse on Method and the Meditations, trans. John Veitch. Prometheus Books. Paperback. ISBN 0-87975-526-1
Stanley Cavell, Disowning Knowledge in Six Plays of Shakespeare. Cambridge UP. Paperback, 2987. Paperback. ISBN 0 521 33890 5 (PHOTOCOPY)
Pedro Calderón de la Barca, La Vida es sueño / Life is a Dream ed. And trans. Stanley Applebaum. Dover, 2002. Paperback. ISBN 0-486-42473-1
Walter Benjamin, Origins of German Tragic Drama, trans. John Osborne (London: Verso, ). Paperback. ISBN 1859844138
Walter Benjamin, Urspring des Deutschen Trauerspiels. Suhrkamp. Paperback. ISBN 3-518-27825-8
Jean Racine, Phèdre. In Théâtre complet, II, ed. Jean-Pierre Colllinet. (Paris: Gallimard, Folio Classique, 1983). Paperback. ISBN 2-07-037495-5
Leo Bersani, “Racine, Psychoanalysis and Oedipus,” from A Future for Astyanax pp. 17-50 (photocopy)
Three Plays of Racine: Phaedra, Andromache, and Brittanicus. trans. George Dillon. (Chicago; Phoenix Books) (Paperback) ISBN 0226150771
David Hume, “On Tragedy” (photocopy)
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment. Trans. James Creed Meredith. Oxford. Paperback. ISBN 0-19-824589-0
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and the Case of Wagner, trans. And ed. Walter Kaufmann. Vintage Books, 1967, Paperback. ISBN 0394703693
Friedrich Nietzsche, “Nietzsche Contra Wagner” (photocopy)
Friedrich Nietzsche, “Der Fall Wagner” “Nietzsche Contra Wagner”; “Die geburt der Tragödie” (photocopies)
Silk and Stern, “Tragedy, Music, and Aesthetics” (photocopy)
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde (sound recording)
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde (DVD)
Joseph Bédier, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult. Dover, 2005. Paperback. ISBN 0486440192
Theodor Adorno, “Music Drama” from In Search of Wagner (photocopy) pp. 97-113
Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar, Opera’s Second Death New York. Routledge. 2002. Paperback. ISBN 0-415-93017-0
Jay Bernstein, “The Horror of Nonidentity: Cindy Sherman’s Tragic Modernism,” photocopy from Against Voluptuous Bodies pp. 253-323.
Miguel Beistegui, “Hegel” Or the Tragedy of Thinking,”in Philosophy and Tragedy, ed. Beistegui and Sparks (photocopy)
Recommended: Philosophy and Tragedy, ed. Beistegui and Sparks (photocopy)
Routledge. Paperback. ISBN 0-415-19142-4
Roland Barthes, Sur Racine