Reiss, New York University; Kathleen M. Sands, University of Massachusetts, Boston; David Scott, Columbia University; George Steiner, University of Geneva; Olga Taxidou, University of Edinburgh Rita Felski, Introduction 1 Defining Tragedy George Steiner, Tragedy, Reconsidered 29 Simon Goldhill, Generalizing About Tragedy 45 Wai Chee Dimock, After Troy: Homer, Euripides, Total War 66 Kathleen M. Sands, Tragedy, Theology, and Feminism in the Time After Time 82 Joshua Foa Dienstag, Tragedy, Pessimism, Nietzsche 104 Rethinking the History of Tragedy Page duBois, Toppling the Hero: Polyphony in the Tragic City 127 Martha C. Nussbaum, The Morality of Pity: Sophocles' Philoctetes 148 Simon Critchley, I Want to Die, I Hate My Life-Phaedra's Malaise 170 Tragedy and Modernity David Scott, Tragedy's Time: Postemancipation Futures Past and Present 199 Stanley Corngold, Sebald's Tragedy 218 Olga Taxidou, Machines and Models for Modern Tragedy: Brecht/Berlau, Antigone-Model 1948 241 Timothy J. Reiss, Transforming Polities and Selves: Greek Antiquity, West African Modernity 263 Tragedy, Film, Popular Culture Elisabeth Bronfen, Femme Fatale Negotiations of Tragic Desire 287 Heather K. Love. Spectacular Failure: The Figure of the Lesbian in Mulholland Drive 302 Michel Maffesoli, The Return of the Tragic in Postmodern Societies 319 Terry Eagleton, Commentary 337 Notes on Contributors 347 Index 351