Greek Tragedy and the Modern World

First published in 1964, Greek Tragedy and the Modern World begins with the question what is Tragedy? Most discussion assumes some essence of Tragedy in certain plays at certain periods, and discussion today centres on whether it is possible, or desirable, for contemporary plays to attend to this essence. There is considerable agreement about what this essence of Tragedy is. But when we examine closely the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides we find that none of the important aspects of this essence of Tragedy applied to them. Greek tragedies are not Tragedy. Yet if we read or perform them, we do discover a special attitude to life which they present.

By examining each of the works of the three Greek masters in turn the author has tried to define what this attitude to life consists of. He then turns his attention to dramatists who have attempted with varying degrees of success, to present aspects of this attitude in contemporary terms: Buchner, Ibsen, Strindberg, Miller, Cocteau, Gide, Giraudoux, Anouilh, Sartre, Ghéon and Eliot. He pays particular attention to such key concepts as ?myth? and discusses the various forms of poetic language used by these writers. The author assumes that one cannot criticise literature, still less drama, except in terms of a complete view of life and goes on to examine the claims of different philosophical systems and methods to provide this. He believes that such a view is both possible and desirable in our time and indeed a necessary prerequisite for the emergence of modern tragedy. This is a must read for scholars and researchers of Greek literature, theatre studies and literature in general.

Review of the Original Publication: 

?An important book that towers high above the pedestrian level of most of what nowadays goes by the name of ?critical literature? on drama.?

-          Martin Esslin, The Listener

The Author of this very interesting book opens his introduction with a declaration of serious intentions. ?The one thing that is certain about a human being is that he will die. Any first-year student of linguistic philosophy could tear this declaration to shreds, but it is a part of Mr Aylen?s thesis that linguistic analysis has already accomplished its necessary task ? the chief of which was to make quite certain that Idealism is so dead that it will never rise again ? and that what is now needed, in philosophy, in the arts, in ethics, and religion, is a new ?imaginative synthesis.?

-          Philip Toynbee, The Observer