What Is Tragedy?

Classicists who study Greek tragedy often argue that the West invented the genre of tragedy. In this seminar, led by Victoria Kahn and Alan Tansman, we will explore cross-cultural ideas of tragedy by comparing the tragedies of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Shakespeare’s King Lear with Noh drama, Edo-period domestic tragedies, and the novel Kokoro by the twentieth-century Japanese novelist Natsume Sôseki.

Tickets for each session are required. Limited admission. Copies of the books to be discussed are available for purchase at Clio's.

Saturday May 9, 11am-1pm: Introduction and Sophocles, Oedipus the King.

Friday May 15, 6-8pm: Shakespeare, King Lear and the film version with Anthony Hopkins.

Saturday May 23, 11am-1pm: Masahiro Shinoda's 1969 film Double Suicides and the first half of Sôseki's novel, Kokoro.

Saturday May 30, 11am-1pm: Discussion of Kokoro and conclusion.

Victoria Kahn is Professor of English and Comparative Literature emerita at UC
Berkeley. Alan Tansman is Professor of Japanese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, UC Berkeley.

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