Tragedy and citizenship [electronic resource] : conflict, reconciliation, and democracy from Haemon to Hegel / Derek W.M. Barker.

ISBN:

9781435695603

9780791477403

Title:

Tragedy and citizenship [electronic resource] : conflict, reconciliation, and democracy from Haemon to Hegel / Derek W.M. Barker.

Author:

Barker, Derek Wai Ming.

Personal Author:

Barker, Derek Wai Ming.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 187 pages)

Contents:

Listening to Haemon : citizenship in the Antigone -- Pity, fear, and citizenship : the politics of Aristotle's Poetics -- Hegel and the politics of reconciliation -- Redescription as reconciliation : Richard Rorty -- John Rawls and Hegelian political philosophy -- Judith Butler's postmodern antigone -- Conclusion : tragedy, citizenship, and the human condition.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Personal Subject:

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831-Political and social views.

Subject Term:

Political science -- Greece -- History -- To 1500.

Political science -- Philosophy -- History.

Greek drama (Tragedy) -- Political aspects.

Citizenship -- Philosophy.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2009

Publication Information:

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
320.01 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Tragedy and Citizenship provides a wide-ranging exploration of attitudes toward tragedy and their implications for politics. Derek W. M. Barker reads the history of political thought as a contest between the tragic view of politics that accepts conflict and uncertainty, and an optimistic perspective that sees conflict as self-dissolving. Drawing on Aristotle s political thought, alongside a novel reading of the Antigone that centers on Haemon, its most neglected character, Barker provides contemporary democratic theory with a theory of tragedy. He sees Hegel s philosophy of reconciliation as a critical turning point that results in the elimination of citizenship. By linking Hegel s failure to address the tragic dimensions of politics to Richard Rorty, John Rawls, and Judith Butler, Barkeroffers a major reassessment of contemporary political theory and a fresh perspective on the most urgent challenges facing democratic politics. Derek W. M. Barker is a program officer at the Kettering Foundation.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

In this engaging, insightful study, Barker (Kettering Foundation) argues that tragic drama in democratic Athens sought to teach citizens about the inevitability of conflict and the danger of flawed responses to it. He builds his case for the civic role of tragedy around a new interpretation of Sophocles' Antigone and the role of Haemon. Barker particularly takes issue with Hegel's famous claim that this play and all tragedy aims at "reconciliation," a perspective from which citizens could see beyond the action of the drama to a stance where the conflicting positions might be harmonized. In subsequent chapters, Barker examines views found in Aristotle, in the theories of Rorty and Rawls, and in feminist interpretations, in order to expose what he regards as the illusory hope for an elimination of tragic conflict from public life. All civic life features the potential for such conflict. Instead of seeking an implausible reconciliation, he argues for a civic education informed by the awareness of tragedy and open to the practical wisdom that can be achieved through a vigorous democratic politics that remains both open and incomplete. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. D. J. Maletz University of Oklahoma