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Main Author: Parker, Fred
Format: Recurso digital
Language:English
Published: Zenodo 2026
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0435
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author Parker, Fred
author_facet Parker, Fred
contents <p>As he dies, Hamlet pleads with Horatio to 'report me aright … tell my story'. This book deals with the task of bearing witness to anguish, atrocity, and madness, as these are staged in the tragic theatre. Focusing on the relationship between the protagonist and the onlooker or witness, it explores how the tragic figure, often and understandably viewed as alien or culpable or profoundly strange, struggles to be understood. Centred on Shakespeare, its wide-ranging approach also introduces works by (among others) the Greeks, Racine, Ibsen, Pirandello, Kafka, Beckett, and Kane.</p><p>The discussion intersects with trauma studies and with psychoanalytic theory, especially around how subjective experience is 'held' by others. The challenge of entering into such difficult experience is likened to the offering of hospitality to the foreigner or stranger: the challenge of overcoming xenophobia. Another large concern is with how tragedy represents madness, and how far such states of mind may be shared with an audience, particularly through the lens of King Lear.</p><p>Written in an accessible style, this book grounds tragedy in matters that resonate in common experience, from mental breakdown and our need to be heard to questions around grieving, trauma, and the ethics of telling someone's story.</p>
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spellingShingle Tragedy and the Witness: Shakespeare and Beyond
Parker, Fred
Ethics of Storytelling
Madness in Literature
Shakespeare
Tragic Drama
Trauma Studies
Witnessing and Testimony
<p>As he dies, Hamlet pleads with Horatio to 'report me aright … tell my story'. This book deals with the task of bearing witness to anguish, atrocity, and madness, as these are staged in the tragic theatre. Focusing on the relationship between the protagonist and the onlooker or witness, it explores how the tragic figure, often and understandably viewed as alien or culpable or profoundly strange, struggles to be understood. Centred on Shakespeare, its wide-ranging approach also introduces works by (among others) the Greeks, Racine, Ibsen, Pirandello, Kafka, Beckett, and Kane.</p><p>The discussion intersects with trauma studies and with psychoanalytic theory, especially around how subjective experience is 'held' by others. The challenge of entering into such difficult experience is likened to the offering of hospitality to the foreigner or stranger: the challenge of overcoming xenophobia. Another large concern is with how tragedy represents madness, and how far such states of mind may be shared with an audience, particularly through the lens of King Lear.</p><p>Written in an accessible style, this book grounds tragedy in matters that resonate in common experience, from mental breakdown and our need to be heard to questions around grieving, trauma, and the ethics of telling someone's story.</p>
title Tragedy and the Witness: Shakespeare and Beyond
topic Ethics of Storytelling
Madness in Literature
Shakespeare
Tragic Drama
Trauma Studies
Witnessing and Testimony
url https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0435