Topic outline

  • General

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    A Roman mosaic of a tragic mask from the ruins of the House of the Faun in Pompeii

    Welcome to COM507 European Tragedy! The sections below contain materials for each week's teaching, guidance for reading, and other resources. Please check this site regularly: content will be updated as the course progresses.

    Tragedy is one of the most vital and enduring European literary genres. Tragic dramas are often perceived as among the most significant achievements of different national literatures. Not only are there outstanding examples of the genre in the national literatures drawn on in this programme, tragedy has from antiquity been the object of intense theoretical reflection on the part of critics and philosophers. Hence the course introduces students to important ways of thinking about literature as well as important literary texts. Moreover, tragic drama has sometimes been seen as embodying a distinct world-view (a ‘tragic vision’ of human life), and various attempts to formulate this have been very influential, although rejected by some critics. The course will therefore engage with questions such as these: what do we gain from and why can we take a kind of pleasure in the spectacle of human misfortune? Are the benefits psychological, spiritual, intellectual? What kind of pleasure is produced? What kinds of misfortune produce the effect proper to tragedy? What can tragedy tell us about the cultures in which it flourishes? What kind of theoretical approaches (social, psychoanalytical, historical) are most fruitfully applied to it?


  • Assessments

  • Assessment Information

  • Week 1: Introduction / ancient tragic theory

    The video clips for this week will introduce the module and briefly present Aristotle's Poetics. 

    Before Week 2, please read the following extracts:

    Adrian Poole, Tragedy: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005): Introduction and Chapter 1 'Who Needs It?' (pp. 15–33)

    Paul Hammond, The Strangeness of Tragedy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009): Prologue and Chapter 1 'The Work of Tragedy' (pp.1–39)

    Aristotle, Poetics, trans. Malcolm Heath (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1996): Introduction (by the translator) and Chapters 4 and 7.1-7.2

    All these texts are available as e-books via the reading list.

    If you haven't already done so, please start to acquire the set texts. Apart from Aristotle's Poetics, the prescribed editions aren't freely available online; but second-hand copies will be readily available via abebooks or alibris. If at all possible, you should read Seamus Heaney's The Burial at Thebes before the lecture on Thursday of Week 2.

  • Week 2: Aristotle and classical Greek tragedy / Antigone

    Before Week 3, please:

    • Make sure you have read The Burial at Thebes
    • Read chapter 7 of Ruth Scodel, An Introduction to Greek Tragedy. This is available as an ebook - follow the link in the module reading list (at the end of the Antigone section)
    • Prepare material for The Antigone Inquiry in the Week 3 Monday seminar. Groups will be allocated, and briefs for each group are available here.

  • Week 3: Sophocles, Antigone

    Please bring a copy of the play with you if at all possible, in either hard copy or electronic form.

    In advance of the lecture, if you have time, please try to read at least some of the pages/sections of Hegel's work indicated in the online reading list. The material is highly abstract and challenging; the guidance page below should be helpful.

    Before Week 4, please prepare material for The Antigone Inquiry in the Monday seminar. Groups will be allocated, and briefs for each group are available here.

    • The Antigone Inquiry Session 1 Page

      The Monday seminar takes the form of an inquiry hearing, set up to investigate the events and issues that led to the outcomes represented in the play. One group will act as the inquiry panel; others will represent different figures in the play. This page sets out the briefs for each group.

    • Inquiry panel - wiki for preparation
      You can use this wiki to prepare your questions for Session 1.

      Not available unless: You belong to Team A
    • Antigone - wiki for preparation
      You can use this wiki to prepare your statement for Session 1.

      Not available unless: You belong to Team B
    • Creon - wiki for preparation
      You can use this wiki to prepare your statement for Session 1.

      Not available unless: You belong to Team C
    • Chorus - wiki for preparation
      You can use this wiki to prepare your statement for Session 1.

      Not available unless: You belong to Team D
    • Haemon - wiki for preparation
      You can use this wiki to prepare your statement for Session 1.

      Not available unless: You belong to Team E
    • Guidance notes for Hegel on tragedy Page
    • Lacan - key quotations Page
    • Butler - key quotations Page
    • Lecture slides File
      95.9 KB
    • Antigone in performance: Juliette Binoche at the Barbican Folder

      A BBC4 broadcast of a 2015 stage performance of Antigone, in Anne Carson's translation. The production involves the illustrious Dutch director Ivo van Hove, and the very well-known actress Juliette Binoche as Antigone. It's worth reflecting on what Binoche brings to the role.

      Click here to access the video via the Box of Broadcasts (BoB), a database available to UK educational institutions. You'll be prompted to login via Queen Mary, and will be sent a verification email if it's your first visit to BoB.

    • Key quotations from an important edition of the Greek text Page

      Quotations on this page are taken from the introduction to Sophocles, Antigone, ed. Mark Griffith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). Griffith typically abbreviates various names: the author's name becomes 'S.' the play's title is 'Ant.', etc. He also transliterates Greek names in ways that reflect modern scholarly practice rather than traditional anglicized forms: hence he refers to 'Kreon', 'Oidipous', and so on. You'll soon get used to this. Some of his comments are very useful not only for an understanding of Antigone, but also in relation to your first assignment. For example, he shows how S. made major changes to the story of Ant. [see, this abbreviation habit is catching] in the interests of arousing pity and fear. You may find this useful when preparing your plot summary and reflective commentary, in showing how inventively you can treat your source material.

  • Week 4: Sophocles, Antigone / Racine, Phaedra

    Before Week 5, please read Phaedra.

    • The Antigone Inquiry Session 2 Page

      This is the second session of the inquiry into what led to the outcomes represented in Antigone. One group will act as the inquiry panel; others will each represent a different major thinker, who has been called as an expert witness. This page sets out the briefs for each group.

    • Lecture slides File
      7.8 MB
    • Gender and death in classical tragedy - key quotations from Nicole Loraux Page

      Some important quotations from Tragic Ways of Killing A Woman by Nicole Loraux, a leading scholar of ancient Greece. Very relevant to both Antigone and Phaedra.

  • Week 5: Racine, Phaedra

    Please make sure that you've read Phaedra in the prescribed edition. You'll need a copy of the text in class. If you have time, please also read Nicholas Paige's piece on Phèdre: there's a link in the reading list.

  • Week 6: Racine, Phaedra / Ibsen, Ghosts

    Before Week 8, please read Ghosts.

  • Week 7: Study week

  • Week 8: Ibsen, Ghosts

  • Week 9: Ibsen, Ghosts / Lorca, Blood Wedding

  • Week 10: Lorca, Blood Wedding

  • Week 11: Lorca, Blood Wedding

  • Week 12: Essay workshop / academic writing


  • Q-Review

  • Topic 17

  • Careers and Employability

  • Topic 19