ENGL 635
Studies in Drama
Winter 2025 · The Tragic Universe: Literature, Philosophy, Politics
Topics
- Tragic form
- German idealism and Romanticism
- Tragedy and politics
- Colonialism and slavery
- Revolution and decolonization
Readings
- Provisional reading/viewing: Peter Szondi, An Essay on the Tragic
- Provisional reading/viewing: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music
- Provisional reading/viewing: Aeschylus, Oresteia trilogy; Sophocles, Theban Cycle
- Provisional reading/viewing: Jean Racine, Andromache in Three Plays of Racine, trans. George Dillon
- Provisional reading/viewing: Friedrich Hölderlin, The Death of Empedocles
- Provisional reading/viewing: Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
- Provisional reading/viewing: Richard Wagner, Tannhäuser; Tristan and Isolde
- Provisional reading/viewing: James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room
- Provisional reading/viewing: Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo
- Provisional reading/viewing: Aimé Césaire, The Tragedy of King Christophe
- Provisional reading/viewing: Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
- Provisional reading/viewing: Chantal Akerman, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
- Provisional reading/viewing: Toni Morrison, Beloved
- Provisional reading/viewing: Selected essays on tragedy and the tragic
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- Official course page ↗Winter 2025
- Departmental seminar description with reading information when supplied; not a full syllabus. Historical Winter 2025. Entire list is explicitly provisional; includes opera and film.