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Tragedy and the Witness: Shakespeare and Beyond

  • Fred Parker (author)
Metadata
TitleTragedy and the Witness
SubtitleShakespeare and Beyond
ContributorFred Parker (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0435
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/OBP.0435
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CopyrightFred Parker
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Publication placeCambridge, UK
Published on2025-04-15
ISBN978-1-80511-443-7 (Paperback)
978-1-80511-444-4 (Hardback)
978-1-80511-445-1 (PDF)
978-1-80511-447-5 (HTML)
978-1-80511-446-8 (EPUB)
Short abstractAs 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.
Long abstractAs 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. 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. 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.
Print length256 pages (xii+244)
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Dimensions156 x 14 x 234 mm | 6.14" x 0.55" x 9.21" (Paperback)
156 x 16 x 234 mm | 6.14" x 0.63" x 9.21" (Hardback)
Weight368g | 12.98oz (Paperback)
535g | 18.87oz (Hardback)
OCLC Number1517206148
THEMA
  • DDT
  • MKPB
  • QDTQ
  • DSM
BISAC
  • LIT004120
  • LIT013000
  • LIT015000
  • PSY036000
  • SOC051000
  • PHI005000
Keywords
  • Tragic Drama
  • Witnessing and Testimony
  • Shakespeare
  • Trauma Studies
  • Madness in Literature
  • Ethics of Storytelling
Contents

1. Overview: Phaedra and the Nurse

(pp. 1–22)
  • Fred Parker

2. Welcoming the Stranger

(pp. 23–50)
  • Fred Parker

3. Imperfect Witness

(pp. 51–94)
  • Fred Parker

4. The Crime and Punishment Story

(pp. 95–142)
  • Fred Parker

5. Giving Audience to Madness

(pp. 143–230)
  • Fred Parker
Locations
PaperbackLanding pageFull text URLPublisher Website
HardbackLanding pageFull text URLPublisher Website
PDFLanding pageFull text URLPublisher Website
Landing pageFull text URLOAPEN
Landing pageDOAB
Landing pageFull text URL
Landing pageFull text URL
Landing pageFull text URLINTERNET ARCHIVE
HTMLLanding pageFull text URLPublisher Website
EPUBLanding pageFull text URLPublisher Website
Contributors

Fred Parker

(author)
Emeritus Professor in English at University of Cambridge
Fellow of Clare College at University of Cambridge

Fred Parker is a Fellow of Clare College and recently retired as Associate Professor in the English Faculty at Cambridge. His previous books include: Scepticism and Literature: An Essay on Pope, Hume, Sterne, and Johnson; The Devil as Muse: Blake, Byron, and the Adversary; and On Declaring Love: Eighteenth-Century Literature and Jane Austen. He has been learning to teach the Cambridge Tragedy paper for many years.

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