The Tragedy Of A Modern Hero

Thomas' mind was full of ideas, and he used the awe and beauty of nature around him as inspiration, as a way to build on and further master problems some of which he had thought of years before; some of which he had no answer to. On sabbatical from his teaching career at the university, Thomas, a professor of mathematics, searches for answers to the greatest modern and ancient problems vexing humanity. Calling upon the ideals laid forth by the great idealist thinkers of the past, he analyzes these dilemmas, as well as himself, and continually asks himself the question, "What is truly my purpose as an infinitesimal being residing in an infinitely large universe?" Without a unifying societal goal to guide him, our modern hero becomes lost in his thoughts only to find he must ultimately define himself, as well as his own personal purpose. In relinquishing his inner turmoil, he finally decides he must champion the cause for solving the "sustainability problem," one of the most pressing issues of modern civilization-can humans sustain themselves on Earth? Having found a purpose, Thomas exhibits newfound energy in attempting to bring the word to the public-at-large. But will tragedy destroy him in the end?

The attempt to apply an aesthetic or literary approach to fascism remains controversial. In The Search for Modern Tragedy, Mary Ann Frese Witt explores the work of a group of European writers and artists who came to fascism by way of aesthetics. In Italy and France, she maintains, an ideological aesthetic of "Mediterranean" fascism developed to a large extent independently of German Nazism. Witt's study of the relationship between fascism and modern tragedy encompasses theoretical writing on tragedy and tragedies by key authors, including Luigi Pirandello, Henry de Montherlant, and Jean Anouilh. She looks at these tragedies in the context of their reception under fascism in Italy and in Vichy France. Fascism, in the minds of many of its supporters, was an aesthetic or spiritual movement, although its aesthetic and political elements were often intertwined. The Search for Modern Tragedy is not concerned primarily with drama written as a means of conveying fascist propaganda. Rather, Witt is concerned with the influence of aesthetic fascism on the theory and practice of modern tragedy.

About death of a salesman. Hailed as a classic modern tragedy, Arthur miller redefined the contours of modern American drama in his play death of a salesman. Miller vivisects the ills of the concept of the great American dream where everyone wants to become extraordinarily rich. Miller punctures the cult of materialism in this play. The present book attempts to analyse this great work from many different standpoints. About The Author Subhajit Bhadra is an Asst Professor in the PG Department of English, Bongaigaon College, Bongaigaon, Assam. He is a gold medalist from the Tezpur Central University. Till now he has published various national and international seminar papers in books and anthologies. He is the author of A Panorama of Indian Writing in English, (published by Authors Press), The Rising Sun. (published by Authors Press), The Man Who Stole the Crown, Selected Stories of Arun Goswami, both published by Swastik publication, A History of English Literature (Published by Chandra Prakash), The Masked Protagonist in Jewish American Fiction. He specializes in American literature, Indian writing in English and postcolonial literature in English. He has also widely published in Sahitya Akademi's bi- monthly journal Indian Literature.

Hercules is a hero; we were all brought up to appreciate the basic idea of the ancient hero. But what about him makes him one? This book aims to challenge some of the standard expectations as to what constitutes a hero, considering the phenomenon of heroism from a range of viewpoints. In this book we invite you to walk around the monumental notions of the hero and heroism, and endeavour to reach out and touch them on all sides. The chapters in this volume testify to the difficulty of answering the question ‘what is a hero?’ and engage with a variety of themes in attempting to offer some replies. They demonstrate not just the variety of ways in which the protagonists of ancient literature can be deemed heroic, but also the tendency for aspects of heroism to turn sour once identified. It seems that the moment we recognise heroic features, we are forced to question them. Do heroes necessitate anti-heroes, for example? Portraying protagonists’ heroic qualities in an ambigous light focuses the reader’s attention on the problem of realising the ideals of heroism in historic actuality. Various chapters ask the rhetorical question of whether we should expect, or more importantly, desire historical actors to behave like mythical heroes. To what extent can a hero ever be integrated into normal society? What difference might there be between a tragic and an epic hero? The commonplace ‘The only good hero is a dead hero’ summarises the extent to which this book also focuses on heroic death and dying. Covering Euripides to Monty Python, Roman soldiers to the modern military, this volume offers the reader a chance to think about the changing notion of the hero and recognise heroic qualities throughout western culture.

This volume responds to a renewed focus on tragedy in theatre and literary studies to explore conceptions of tragedy in the dramatic work of seventeen canonical American playwrights. For students of American literature and theatre studies, the assembled essays offer a clear framework for exploring the work of many of the most studied and performed playwrights of the modern era. Following a contextual introduction that offers a survey of conceptions of tragedy, scholars examine the dramatic work of major playwrights in chronological succession, beginning with Eugene O'Neill and ending with Suzan-Lori Parks. A final chapter provides a study of American drama since 1990 and its ongoing engagement with concepts of tragedy. The chapters explore whether there is a distinctively American vision of tragedy developed in the major works of canonical American dramatists and how this may be seen to evolve over the course of the twentieth century through to the present day. Among the playwrights whose work is examined are: Susan Glaspell, Langston Hughes, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, August Wilson, Marsha Norman and Tony Kushner. With each chapter being short enough to be assigned for weekly classes in survey courses, the volume will help to facilitate critical engagement with the dramatic work and offer readers the tools to further their independent study of this enduring theme of dramatic literature.