The Absent One: Mourning Ritual, Tragedy, and the Performance of Ambivalence

by Susan Letzler Cole

Book Overview

Here is presented a new theory of the origins of tragedy, based on its perceived kinship with mourning ritual. Mourners and tragic protagonists alike journey through dangerous transitional states, confront the uncanny, express themselves in antithetical style, and, above all, enact their ambivalence toward their beloved dead. Elements common to both tragedy and mourning ritual are first identified in actual Chinese, African, and Greek funerary...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0271007850
• ISBN13: 9780271007854
• Release Date: September 1991
• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"