Introduction

Philosophical thought in the German tradition has persistently linked Greek tragedy to the articulation of its own identity, and especially to its sense of what it means to exist in the modern age. The Introduction considers this interplay from the standpoint of classical scholarship, and suggests that a renewed engagement with philosophical thought on tragedy could be especially important as a means of mediating between the transhistorical focus of reception studies and the historicizing tendencies of traditional scholarship. Looking beyond the figures who have most dominated discussions of the tragic, Hegel and Nietzsche, the volume concentrates on three areas in particular: the persistence of questions associated with poetics, the cultural politics of tragedy, and the impact of canons on thinking about tragedy.