The Problem of Tragedy

Résumé du livre

"THE PROBLEM OF TRAGEDYS. MORRIS ENGEL" In my discussion of the peculiar theme of tragedy and the nature of its so-called "paradox", I have not been able to avoid the conclusion that the kind of experience provided by the encounter with tragedy is irrational and founded upon an illusion. This conclusion was forced upon me when I suddenly realized that the element which philosophers have held to be responsible for the great success of tragedy is, when regarded from another point of view, a sign of its failure; that Aristotle's Universal, Hegel's Absolute, Schopenhauer's Will, Nietzsche's Diony- sus and Jaspers' Abyss in short, "the God in everything" rather than testifying to the success of tragedy, really testifies to its failure. In thinking the problem out for myself I eventually came to see that although tragedy does confront us (as these philosophers point out) with a mystery, this mystery is not Dionysus, not Will, not the Absolute, but simply the mystery of human suffering, and that before it art fares no better than science, philosophy or religion ."S. MORRIS ENGEL is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Brunswick. He was born in Promow, Poland, in 1931, and came to Canada in 1939. He studied at the University of Manitoba where, as an undergraduate, he published a widely acclaimed translation of the famous Yiddish mystical drama, The Dibbek. He received his B.A. degree in English Literature and Philosophy in 1953, and lectured in the English Department for the year 1953-54. The following year he received his M.A. degree. From Manitoba, Mr. Engel proceeded to the University of Toronto and obtained his Ph.D. degree in Philosophy in 1959.Mr. Engel is also the translator of Rachmil Bryks' chronicle of Jewish martyrdom, entitled, A Cat in the Ghetto (Bloch Publishing Co., New York, 1959)." Publisher