Tragic Pleasure From Homer to Plato

This book uses Greek poetry and Plato's philosophy to explain the appeal of tragedy and explore the non-cognitive value of aesthetic engagement.

List of contents

Introduction: the pleasure of tragedy; 1. The taste of archaic poetry; 2. Emotional satisfaction in archaic poetry; 3. Tragic pleasure in Plato's Republic; Epilogue: poetry and privacy: towards an Aristotelian defense of poetry and a Platonic alternative.

About the author

Rana Saadi Liebert is a site director and faculty member of the Bard Prison Initiative, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics at Bard College, New York. Her research focuses on the relationship between ethics and aesthetics in ancient literature and philosophy, ancient and modern theories of emotion, and the history of conceptualizing fiction.

Summary

This book develops an embodied model of aesthetic engagement derived from Greek poetry and Plato's philosophy, and uses this model to resolve an intractable paradox in aesthetic theory: the appeal of tragedy. It will be of interest to classicists, philosophers, and scholars in other fields concerned with aesthetics and emotions.

Product details

• Authors: Rana Saadi Liebert, Rana Saadi (Bard College Liebert
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.04.2017
• EAN: 9781107184442
• ISBN: 978-1-107-18444-2
• No. of pages: 226
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; PSYCHOLOGY / Emotions, LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical, PHILOSOPHY / Aesthetics, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / General, Greece, Psychology: emotions, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Philosophy: aesthetics, Anthologies: general, Anthologies (non-poetry), Ancient (Classical) Greek, Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500, BCE to c 500 CE, BCE period – Protohistory, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / Eastern