The Subject of Tragedy

The Subject of Tragedy: Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama is a nonfiction book written by Catherine Belsey and published in 1985 by Methuen Publishing. It has since been republished by Routledge on July 14, 2015.^[1][2][3][4]

Routledge 2015 book cover

Synopsis

The book is a literary critique and an innovative interpretation of Renaissance drama. Belsey takes into account the patriarchy and the suppressed female voices of that period. Also, Belsey "situates the protagonists between the 'discontinuous' subjects of medieval morality plays, who must await death before arriving at the absorption into God's salvationist plan, and the 'unified' heroes of classic realist drama, who represent the spurious unity affirmed by the triumph of 'liberal humanism.'" ^[5]

Chapter titles

The book is divided into two parts: Part 1 Man consisting of chapters 2–4, and Part 2 Woman consisting of chapters 5–8. The chapter titles are:^[6]

1. Introduction: Reading the Past
2. Unity
3. Knowledge
4. Autonomy
5. Alice Arden's crime
6. Silence and speech
7. Finding a place
8. Conclusion: changing the present

The book also contains a Notes chapter, a Bibliography and an Index.

See also

• English Renaissance theatre
• Mystery plays

References

1. Gaudet, Paul (1989). "Reviewed work: The Subject of Tragedy: Identity & Difference in Renaissance Drama, Catherine Belsey". Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England. 4: 217–223. JSTOR 24322302.
2. Kehler, Dorothea (1987). "Reviewed work: The Subject of Tragedy: Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama, Catherine Belsey". Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature. 41 (1/2): 83–85. doi:10.2307/1347586. JSTOR 1347586.
3. Kamps, Ivo (1987). "Review: The Subject of Tragedy: Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama". Minnesota Review. 29 (1). Project Muse: 156–159.
4. Kahn, Coppelia (1986). "Reviewed work: The Subject of Tragedy: Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama, Catherine Belsey". Shakespeare Bulletin. 4 (5): 26–27. JSTOR 26351650.
5. Wheeler, Richard P. (1988). "Reviewed work: The Devil's Party: Critical Counter-Interpretations of Shakespearian Drama, Harriett Hawkins; the Subject of Tragedy: Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama, Catherine Belsey; the Poetics of Plot: The Case of English Renaissance Drama, Thomas G. Pavel". The Modern Language Review. 83 (3): 668–669. doi:10.2307/3731307. JSTOR 3731307.
6. "The Subject of Tragedy (Routledge Revivals): Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama".

Further reading

• Belsey, Catherine; Demoor, Marysa; Pieters, Jürgen (2000). "Discursive Desire: Catherine Belsey's Feminism". Feminist Review (66): 25–45. JSTOR 1395831.
• Hawkins, Harriett (1987). "Reviewed work: The Tragic Plane, H. A. Mason; the Subject of Tragedy: Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama, Catherine Belsey; Renaissance Tragedy and the Senecan Tradition: Anger's Privilege, Gordon Braden". The Review of English Studies. 38 (150): 277–280. doi:10.1093/res/XXXVIII.150.277. JSTOR 515460.

External links

• Official website
• ISBN 9781138015395