AIS: Tragedy and Philosophy.

Catalog description

This course is an exercise in using philosophy to study literature, and literature philosophy. We take several works of classical and modern tragedy that are pivotal in their respective literary and thought worlds, and place them in conversation with both one another and certain key philosophical treatments of the genre. Our goal is both to better understand the essence of tragedy, and the way in which its core themes illuminate our sense of what it means to live a good human life. Key figures in the course include: Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Shakespeare, Schelling, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Camus, Arthur Miller, Martha Nussbaum, and Bernard Williams.