Revenge Tragedy: Aeschylus to Armageddon

Book info: Revenge Tragedy: Aeschylus to Armageddon (Paperback, 420 pages) – Clarendon Press, 1998. Language: English.

Revenge has long been a central theme in Western culture. From Homer to Nietzsche, from St. Paul to Sylvia Plath, major writers have been fascinated by its emotional intensity and by the questions it raises about the nature of justice, violence, sexuality, and death. John Kerrigan employs both wide-ranging historical analysis and subtle attention to individual texts to explore the culture of vengeance in several languages and genres. Thus, he shows how evolving attitudes to retribution have shaped and reconstituted tragedy in the West and elucidates the remarkable capacity of this ancient theme to generate innovative works of art. Although this book is a literary study, it makes use of anthropology, social theory, and moral philosophy. As a result, it will be of interest to students in a variety of disciplines, as well as to the general reader. Editorial Reviews Review "Ranges with enormous zest and learning between the ancient world and contemporary popular culture."--Studies in English Literature

About the Author John Kerrigan is at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge.