What is tragedy? This work argues that it is, at once, art and science an absorbing art and precisely observed empirical inquiry into human psychology, whose subject matter is the dilemma of manhood under democracy. The author expands discussion of the idea of the tragic to include music drama in general and the operas of Verdi in particular, and explores the indispensable contribution of tragedy to an understanding of personal and political psychology through discussion of: the political theory of structural injustice resting on the suppression of voice (underlying evils like racism, sexism, and homophobia); a developmental psychology of gender (drawing on the work of Carol Gilligan (the Harvard Project on Womens Psychology, Boys Development and the Culture of Manhood)); and an interpretation of tragic art (including the expressive role of music in it). Exploration of the tragic impact of patriarchy on democratic voice is at the heart of the power and appeal of Verdis innovations
List of contents
CONTENTS: The idea of tragedy and the dilemma of democratic manhood: Verdi's analytics of traumatised voice under patriarchy; Tragic art: patriarchy in ancient Athens and Verdi's Italy; Music as the memory of suppressed voice in Verdi's mature operas; Verdi and Italian nationalism; Parents and children; Siblings; Lovers; Tragedy as the dilemma of democratic manhood; Between Patriarchal and Democratic Manhood.
