Open AccessBeyond Historical Tragedy: The Frankfurt School and Judeo-Christian Messianism
Author(s) -
Colin J. Campbell
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
strategies of critique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1916-7210
DOI - 10.25071/1916-7210.15368
Subject(s) - hegelianism , tragedy (event) , messianism , philosophy , perspective (graphical) , meaning (existential) , george (robot) , critical theory , reading (process) , epistemology , literature , judaism , theology , art history , history , art , linguistics , visual arts
In "Beyond Historical Tragedy" the author compares and discusses Hegel's prescient understanding of the meaning of tragedy and how it differs from Aristotelian or quasi-Aristotelian theories. At the same time, he embarks on a critique of George Steiner's Hegelian reading of Sophocles' Antigone, and of tragedy more generally. He develops the idea that the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School is closer to a Jewish or Christian perspective than to the tragic perspective - or to Hegel's modern version of the tragic perspective. The contrast is most clear in the way that the idea of fate is negated by Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse and Benjamin.