Radical Tragedy

Acknowledgments ix

Foreword / Terry Eagleton x

Introduction to the Third Edition xiv

i September 1914 xiv

ii September 2001 xvi

iii September 1939
xix

iv Art and Humanism xxii

v Humanism and Materialism xxv

vi Returns xxvi

vii Knowledge and Desire xxx

Notes xxxv

Bibliography xxxvii

Introduction to the Second Edition xli

Part I: Radical Drama: Its Contexts and Emergence

1. Contexts 3

i Literary Criticism: Order versus History 5

ii Ideology, Religion and Renaissance Scepticism 9

iii Ideology and the Decentering of Man 17

iv Secularism versus Nihilism 19

v Censorship 22

vi Inversion and Misrule 25

2. Emergence: Marston's Antonio Plays (c. 1599-1601) and Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (c. 1601-1602) 29

i Discontinuous Identity (1) 30

ii Providence and Natural Law (1) 36

iii Discontinuous Identity (2) 40

iv Providence and Natural Law (2) 42

v Ideology and the Absolute 44

vi Social Contradiction and Discontinuous Identity 47

vii Renaissance Man versus Decentered Malcontent 49

Part II: Structure, Mimesis, Providence

3. Structure: From Resolution to Dislocation 53

i Bradley 53

ii Archer and Eliot 56

iii Coherence and Discontinuity 59

iv Brecht: A Difference Reality 63

4. Reniassance Literary Theory: Two Concepts of Mimesis 70

i Poetry versus History 71

ii The Fictive and the Real 73

5. The Disintegration of Providentialist Belief 83

i Atheism and Religious Scepticism 83

ii Providentialism and History 87

iii Organic Providence 90

iv From Mutability to Cosmic Decay 92

v Goodman and Elemental Chaos 99

vi Providence and Protestantism 103

vii Providence, Decay and the Drama 107

6. Dr. Faustus (c. 1589-92): Subversion Through Transgression 109

i Limit and Transgression 110

ii Power and the Unitary Soul 116

7. Mustapha (c. 1594-6): Ruined Aesthetic, Ruined Theology 120

i Tragedy, Theology and Cosmic Decay 120

ii Mustapha: Tragedy as Dislocation 123

8. Sejanus (1603): History and Realpolitik 134

i History, Fate, Providence 134

9. The Revenger's Tragedy (c. 1606): Providence, Parody and Black Camp 139

i Providence and Parody 139

ii Desire and Death 143

Part III: Man Decentered

10. Subjectivity and Social Process 153

i Tragedy, Humanism and the Transcendent Subject 156

ii The Jacobean Displacement of the Subject 158

iii The Essentialist Tradition: Christianity, Stoicism and Renaissance Humanism 161

iv Internal Tensions 163

v Anti-Essentialism in Political Theory and Renaissance Skepticism 169

vi Renaissance Individualism? 174

11. Bussy D'Ambois (c. 1604): A Hero at Court 182

i Shadows and Substance 182

ii Court Power and Native Noblesse 185

12. King Lear (c. 1605-6) and Essentialist Humanism 189

i Redemption and Endurance: Two Sides of Essentialist Humanism 191

ii King Lear: A Materialist Reading 195

iii The Refusal of Closure 202

13. Antony and Cleopatra (c. 1607): Virtus under Erasure 204

i Virtus and History 206

ii Virtus and Realpolitik (1) 207

iii Honour and Policy 213

iv Sexuality and Power 215

14. Coriolanus (c. 1608): The Chariot Whell and its Dust 218

i Virtus and Realpolitik (2) 218

ii Essentialism and Class War 222

15. The White Devil (1612): Transgression Without Virtue 231

i Religion and State Power 231

ii The Virtuous and the Vicious 232

iii Sexual and Social Exploitation 235

iv The Assertive Woman 239

v The Dispossessed Intellectual 242

vi Living Contradictions 244

Part IV: Subjectivity: Idealism versus Materialism

16. Beyond Essentialist Humanism 249

i Origins of the Transcendent Subject 250

ii Essence and Universal: Enlightenment Transitions 253

iii Discrimination and Subjectivity 256

iv Formative Literary Influences: Pope to Eliot 258

v Existentialism 262

vi Lawrence, Leavis and Individualism 264

vii The Decentered Subject 269

Notes 272

Bibliography of Works Cited 290

Index of Names and Texts 307

Index of Subjects 311