Ever since its creation in classical Athens, tragedy has been more than 'just' theatre: it has been a template that proved to be extraordinarily 'good to think with,' from Plato and Aristotle through, for instance, German Classicism and Romanticism (Schiller, Nietzsche, Wagner) and 19th-century Naturalism (Strindberg, Ibsen) to 20th-century artists working in high-brow culture (Brecht, Beckett, Miller, Sarah Kane) and in the Hollywood machine (Francis Coppola, George Lucas and the collectives creating shows like '24' or 'Breaking Bad'). What exactly has constituted this persistent allure of tragedy to artists working in disparate media across cultures and centuries? What is there to learn about them (and for us) from their modes of engagement with tragedy? And what does the comparatist method contribute to our understanding of these dynamics which other, more isolated approaches would not be able to deliver?

For the pursuit of these questions this course will follow a tripartite structure. ‘Foundations’ will centre on a close reading of the foundational text for thinking about tragedy, Aristotle's Poetics (including critical responses to it such as Brecht's Small Organon for the Theatre or Arthur Miller's Tragedy and the Common Man). The module 'Instantiations' will scrutinize select works of art/theoretical writings from theatre, philosophy, and opera, including Strindberg Miss Julie, Nietzsche Birth of Tragedy, selections from Schiller's theoretical writings as well as Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung, Bizet's Carmen, Enescu's Oedipe and Weill/Brecht Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. The final module 'Challenges and survivals' looks at modes of resistance to tragedy (e.g., Brecht The Good Person of Sezuan, Glass/Wilson Einstein on the Beach) or other noteworthy 20th/21st-century appropriations in cinematic popular culture (e.g., Godfather, Star Wars, 24) and in theatrical high culture (e.g., Beckett Krapp's Last Tape and Endgame, Sarah Kane 4.48 Psychosis and Phaedra's Love, and performance art responses to the 9/11 terror attacks).

This course should be of interest not just to comparatists but to participants from a wide range of philologies, theatre studies, cinema studies, philosophy and music. Ample opportunity will be given to course participants to integrate own interests both into the course work and the mandatory research paper.