Dec 13, 2024  
Undergraduate Bulletin 2013-2014 
    
Undergraduate Bulletin 2013-2014 [ARCHIVED BULLETIN]

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HNSM 464 - The Tragic in Human Life

3 hours
We typically look at tragedy as something having to do with untimely or painful death or with a great harm done to an innocent. But tragedy, in its original sense, also concerns humankind’s dealing with weighty issues: issues of fundamental importance to the understanding of the human condition. What do we mean by the tragic? Are our lives controlled by fate or a higher power? Or, do we control our lives and determine our own destinies? Ultimately, what is our place in this world: does human life have meaning? We will explore these and other questions through critical readings and spirited discussions of the following texts: Job, Oedipus Tyrannus, King Lear, Aristotle’s Poetics, and Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy.



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