One of the most important elements in Yeats' thought is his view of the tragic basis of art. This conception, which can best be called a tragic aesthetic, was developed shortly after 1900 in three prose works--certain fragments of the Samhain publication (1904), "Poetry and Tradition" (1907), and "The Tragic Theatre" (1910). The tragic view developed in these essays became the conceptual basis behind much of Yeats' poetry and therefore played a central role in the direction of his career. This thesis traces the lineaments of Yeats' tragic aesthetic in these early essays, determining its outline in the dreamy, often vague language in which it is expressed, and shows its impact on his poetry from 1904 to the end of his career in 1939.

本論文所要處理的是惡的意願與非意願性的辯證。在《惡的象徵》中，悲劇神學和人學的概念便是作為辯證之中介。這兩概念與一種痛苦意識有關，所意識者就是仲裁正義者，亦是違反其正義原則的惡的來源。對「悲劇神學」而言，這個對象就是神；對「悲劇人學」而言，便是意識到人的良知隱藏著惡的可能。可見悲劇神學和人學是一相互依賴的概念。但是由於在呂格爾的象徵系列當中，尤其是玷污及罪的象徵，皆是在神與人的某種關係而論的，因此我們更為凸顯悲劇神學的概念。 第二章主要從情節和美學效果兩途徑，呈現呂格爾如何由古希臘悲劇抽繹出悲劇神學和人學兩概念。 第三章則著重闡述呂格爾《惡的象徵》中的玷汙/罪/罪咎象徵系列，以及突顯悲劇神學和人學如何受制於象徵系列所賦予的意義及角色。藉由象徵系列，奴隸意志的概念得以釐清。其所表達的是，由自由意志的選擇，所造成的自我囚禁之惡。 第四章將悲劇概念放在神話重力場結構及基督論的脈絡中，呈現悲劇的相對位置。針對悲劇神學和人學概念，呂格爾將兩者視為批判和限制的否定性概念。另一方面，藉由基督論，嘗試呈現超克悲劇神學和人學的可能性。值得注意的是，當呂格爾將悲劇神學和人學當成批判性概念的時候，在一定程度上，便具有解構其他象徵(內含的奴隸意志成分)的力道。但是相對於基督論來講，悲劇神學和人學便是等待超越，而有所不足的概念。因此我們可以排列出相對位階：奴隸意志－初步自由(悲劇)－參與之自由(基督論)。 至於結論部分，在《惡的象徵》中，我們已經看到，呂格爾將信仰和知識劃歸不同真理領域的嘗試，也看到需要以信仰或象徵語言為前理解基礎的意義領域。但是，如何在詮釋作為超越之意義領域的基督論之時，肯定其超越性又保持其意義之開放性和模糊性呢？甚至更進一步地，保持相異宗教或象徵語言之真理的可能性呢？這些都是仍待探索的議題。 / This thesis deals with the dialectic of the voluntary and the involuntary of evil. In The Symbolism of Evil, the mediations of the dialectic are tragic theology and tragic anthropology. They are related to the consciousness of suffering. It means awareness of the source of evil that who judges the justice is one violating its own. ‘Tragic theology’ concerns god; for ‘tragic anthropology’, it means the possibility of evil which hides in the conscience of human. One can see that tragic theology and anthropology are mutually-dependent conceptions. Even if Ricoeur’s symbolical series associate much to the relation of god and man, we stress much more the conception of ‘tragic theology’. Chapter two discusses how Ricoeur analyzes these two conceptions of tragic theology and anthropology in ways of plot and aesthetic influences. Chapter three explains the symbolical series of stain, sin, and guilt. It also deals with how tragic theology and anthropology are subject to the meaning and the role of the symbolical series. Moreover, the concept of the servile will can be clarified by means of the symbolical series, which expresses that the will of freedom results in the evil of self-enclosure. Chapter four puts the concept of tragedy in the structure of mythically gravitational space and in the context of Christology to express the unique place of tragedy. Ricoeur regards tragic theology and anthropology as the negative conceptions which is critical and limiting. Moreover, he tries to exhibit the possibility of surpassing tragic theology and anthropology which, noticeably, have the power of deconstructing other symbols (the elements of servile will within) to some extent that Ricoeur regards them as critical conceptions. But in contrast to Christology, they are conceptions which wait for being surpassed and are limited. Thus, we can manifest the hierarchical levels: the servile will－a initial freedom(tragedy)－a freedom of participation(Christology). As to the conclusion, in The Symbolism of Evil, we have seen that Ricoeur tries to divide belief and knowledge into different fields of truth and that he needs the field of meaning which regards belief or symbolical language as the fundamental of pre-understanding. But, how do we assert its transcendence and keep the openness and the ambiguity at the same time that we interpret the Christology as the sphere of transcendental meaning? Even much more, we keep the possibility of truth of different religions and symbolical languages? These are issues waiting for further investigating.

The thesis focuses on the theory of tragedy in Germany around 1800, and has two primary aims: to demonstrate the importance of idealist thought for contemporary approaches to tragedy and the tragic; and to revise the intellectual historiography of the classic phase in German letters. It traces reflection on Greek tragedy from the Querelle des anciens et des modernes in France around 1700 through the aesthetic systems formulated in Germany around 1800. Two intellectual developments are emphasized: the historicist consciousness that develops throughout the eighteenth century and places Greek tragedy more radically in its cultural context than ever before; and the idealist philosophy of art, which seeks to restore a measure of universality to the ancient genre, seeing it as the manifestation of a timeless quality of ‘the tragic.’ These two impulses, historicizing and universalizing, it is argued, are fundamental to modern understanding of Greek tragedy. The genealogical method seeks to establish a greater continuity with earlier eighteenth-century thought than is generally recognized, and to refute the teleologies that dominate accounts of idealist thought. A reconstruction of the central texts of Schiller, Schelling, Hegel, and Hölderlin reveals that the theory of tragedy around 1800 is in large part a reflection on history, an effort to understand how ancient literature can be meaningful in modernity. Greek tragedy becomes the ground for an engagement with the pastness of antiquity and its possible presence. Idealist theories, far from dissolving particularity in abstraction, seek a mediation between philological historicism and philosophical universalism in considering Greek tragedy. A genealogy of the tragic suggests that such mediation remains a vital task for scholars of the Classics.

This paper proposes that Samuel Richardson consciously created the motivational complexity of Clarissa Harlowe. The arguments are the following: eighteenth-century scientific interest in motivation influenced Richardson, his Puritanism led him to suspect and emphasize motive, his frequent use of the word motive suggests an awareness, his choice of the epistolary form is ideal for revealing motives, his attention to the ambiguity of motives indicates his interest, and his complexly motivated Clarissa demands a conscious creator. The last argument constitutes the principal section of the study, and Clarissa's motives are analyzed from the events prior to the elopement, through the rape in London, and finally to her death. She is studied as a product of eighteenth-century decorum, individualism, and Puritanism, but also as an intricate personality.

Nous formons l’hypothèse que Racine met en scène une lutte contre l’indicible. Dans chaque pièce, il s’agit de révéler quelque chose d’inacceptable et d’impossible à dire. Comment dire ce qu’on ne peut pas dire ? Et surtout, comment ne pas provoquer l’effroi de celui qui écoute ? Le silence, qu’il représente une pure absence de mots ou un bruissement de voix permettant de ne pas répondre, se trouve ainsi au coeur de l’échange dialogique. La déclaration d’amour relève de cet indicible et suscite une tension permanente entre « dire » et « taire ». Cette étude s’articule donc autour du paradoxe suivant : parler est impossible, mais la réticence à dire, une fois surmontée, produit l’irrémédiable. La déclaration d’amour est l’emblème de ce procédé. Elle représente l’énoncé tragique par excellence, puisqu’elle engendre la fatalité. Révéler l’amour, c’est condamner l’autre. L’oracle fatal s’exprime par la bouche des personnages amoureux. Racine donne ainsi naissance à un nouveau théâtre de l’amour dans lequel la déclaration correspond à une crise existentielle. Le personnage racinien affirme son être-au-monde par l’expression de son amour qui fait violence à l’autre. / I argue that Racine represents the fight against the unspoken. Each play reveals something that is unacceptable and impossible to articulate. How does one state all that cannot be stated? Above all, how to avoid stirring the terror of the listener? Silence, whether it represents a pure absence of words or a murmuring of voices that inhibit an answer, finds itself at the core of the discursive exchange. The declaration of love emerges from the unsaid and brings about a permanent tension between « the spoken word » and « silence. » This study is based on the following paradox: speech is impossible, but the reticence to speak, once overcome, induces an irreversible process. The declaration of love is the symbol of this process. Its utterance represents the ultimate tragic enunciation as it engenders Fate. To show one’s love is to condemn the other.The fatal oracle expresses itself through the words of characters in love.Racine inaugurates a new theater of love in which the declaration corresponds to a deep existential crisis. The Racinian character asserts his subjectivity by expressing his love, though it violates the other.

Orientador: José Carlos Bruni / Banca: Clélia Aparecida Martins / Banca: Franklin Leopoldo e Silva / Resumo: Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar a construção filosófica de Friedrich Nietzsche acerca do sentido de sabedoria trágica, desde sua formulação no estudo sobre a tragédia até os escritos finais no que concerne ao trágico. Nesse intuito, busca-se aprofundar o estudo dos elementos tratados por Nietzsche ao longo de sua produção filosófica, passando pelos conceitos apolíneo e dionisíaco, a partir dos quais tratará do nascimento da arte trágica e do enfrentamento do pessimismo, e retratando as modificações sofridas por seu pensamento ao distanciar-se da concepção metafísica de arte e voltar-se a um projeto pelo qual enaltece a força dionisíaca em oposição ao conhecimento moral e metafísico. Desse modo, serão analisados os caminhos percorridos por esta filosofia trágica, que encontrará sua máxima na concepção do eterno retorno e na força dionisíaca de afirmação da existência / Abstract: This research aims to analyse the philosophical construction of Friedrich Nietzsche specifically the tragic wisdom's meaning, since when it was formulates in the study of the tragedy until the final writings in regard to the tragic. To this end, the focus was to analyse with details the study of elements that are used by Nietzsche throughout his philosophical production, through with the apollonian and dionysian's concepts, from which will deal with the begin of the tragic art and the confront of the pessimism, and reflecting the changes suffered from his thought that is to be distant from the metaphysical conception of art and to be with a project that extols the dionysian force in opposition to the moral and metaphysical knowledge. Thus, it will be analysed the paths that are taken by this tragic's philosophy, and that will find its maximum in the conception of eternal recurrence and Dionysian's power of life's affirmation / Mestre

O principal objetivo de nossa tese foi examinar de que maneira a doutrina do eterno retorno do mesmo se relaciona com o projeto de transvaloração dos valores e com a noção nietzschiana de trágico. Para efetivar nosso intento, realizamos, primeiramente, uma investigação acerca da esfera cosmológica da doutrina do eterno retorno. Em segundo lugar, promovemos a relação entre esse âmbito cosmológico do eterno retorno e o projeto de transvaloração dos valores. Essa relação deu ensejo a duas problemáticas para as quais tentamos dar resposta nas duas últimas partes de nossa tese. Nesse sentido, tentamos responder à primeira problemática que chamamos de o problema do determinismo no eterno retorno esclarecendo a noção nietzschiana de trágico e tentando mostrar de que forma ela está relacionada com a doutrina do eterno retorno e com o projeto de transvaloração dos valores. Por fim, propomos uma resposta à segunda problemática, a saber, a incompatibilidade entre o perspectivismo e a cosmologia do eterno retorno do mesmo. / The main aim of this thesis is to examine how the doctrine of the eternal recurrence of the same is related to the project of transvaluation of values and to the Nietzschean notion of tragic. To accomplish this purpose, first we examined the cosmological sphere of the doctrine. Secondly, we promote the relationship between this cosmological context and the project of transvaluation of values. Two problems have emerged from this relationship to which we tried answering in the last two parts of the thesis. We tried answering the first problem that we called the problem of determinism in the eternal return clarifying the Nietzschean notion of tragic and showing how it is related to the doctrine of the eternal return and to the project of transvaluation of values. Finally, we propose an answer to the second problem, namely the incompatibility between perspectivism and cosmology of the eternal return of the same.

O que motiva este texto é investigar quais as possibilidades, as características e os efeitos de um modo de pensar que tenha o humor como ponto de partida. O riso costuma não estar onde a crença na Verdade absoluta aparece, o que o dissocia, tradicionalmente, de categorizações do real cujo horizonte é tal Verdade. Não obstante, até que se creia tê-la alcançado, não raro, o humor surge como ferramenta - ora ridicularizando aquilo que foge à ordem vigente; ora satirizando a própria ordem, mas em nome de uma que teria, ela sim, fundamentos transcendentes; diante do que se pretende absoluto, porém, o riso cala e a atmosfera daí decorrente é séria. Fundamentados na Filosofia Trágica, conforme a propõe o filósofo Friedrich Nietzsche, contudo, procuramos descrever um outro cenário. Para o alemão, o real é convenção, imagem, e qualquer discurso que pretenda dar conta dessa realidade acaba sempre por ser muito mais indicativo de quem o produz do que, de fato, daquilo que existe. Compreender a existência como convenção, então, nos levaria a uma forma de pensar animada não mais por uma vontade de descoberta, de desnudamento de uma pretensa Verdade, mas por algo próximo ao que chamaremos de uma \"vontade de jogo\", isto é, uma disposição mais inclinada a reconhecer que aquilo a que nos dedicamos de corpo e alma não tem um fundo transcendente, mas é uma invenção e, como tal, em alguma medida, pode ser alterada, trocada. Interpretar dessa maneira aquilo que é pensado sugere que, independentemente do conteúdo do que se pensa, tem-se um fazer diferente, embasado não mais em afetos que temem descolar-se de uma Verdade única ou desobedecer a ela, mas sim em uma disposição humorística alinhada àquilo que o escritor Luigi Pirandello chama de \"sentimento do contrário\", isto é, uma paixão compadecida por ver no mundo apenas criação, qualquer que seja ela. O humor como ponto de largada para o pensar, por fim, parece-nos capaz de desmobilizar aquilo que se pensa de uma arrogância totalitária que se pretende senhora da Verdade. / The impetus for this work is to contemplate the possibilities, characteristics and effects of a way of thinking that has humor as its starting point. Laughter usually is not where the belief in absolute truth appears, which is dissociated, traditionally, from categorizations of reality whose horizon is that truth. Nevertheless, until one believes to have reached it, frequently, humor arises as an instrument sometimes mocking what escapes from order; sometimes satirizing its own order, but in the name of one that would have transcendent foundations; in the face of what is intended absolute, however, laughter silences, and the atmosphere resulted from it is serious. Founded on Tragic Philosophy, as Friedrich Nietzsche proposes, nonetheless, we try to describe another scenario. For this philosopher, what is real is a convention, an image, and whichever speech that intends to handle this reality ends up always being more indicative of the one that produces it than, in fact, from what exists. Comprehending existence as a convention, then, leads us to a way of thinking motivated not anymore by a will of discovery, or by a desire of unveiling an alleged truth, but rather by something close to what we will call a will of game, which is a willingness more tilted to recognize that to what we dedicate our hearts and minds does not have a transcendent foundation, but is actually an invention and, as such, in some level, can be altered or replaced. This interpretation suggests that, independent from the substance of what one thinks, we have a different making, built not anymore in affections that fear to detach themselves from a unique truth or that fear to disobey it, yet in a humorous tendency aligned to what the writer Luigi Pirandello calls sentiment of the opposite, which is a passion sympathized on account of seeing only creation in the world, whatever that may be. Humor as a starting point for thinking, then, seems to be capable of demobilizing what is thought as a totalitarian arrogance which intends itself as the owner of truth.

Thesis advisor: Lisa Sowle Cahill / The existence of moral and tragic dilemmas is highly debated within philosophy. Tragic dilemmas are a special kind of moral dilemma that involve great tragedy. Traditionally, philosophy tends to deny dilemmas because obligations cannot truly conflict and an ethical system must always guide agents in deliberation. For the most part, Christian theology dismisses the possibility of moral dilemmas. A highly influential theological rejection comes from Aquinas. Philosopher Bernard Williams famously challenged traditional ideas, worrying that a focus on reason to the exclusion of feelings has prevented ethicists from recognizing important aspects of the moral life, including the existence of moral and tragic dilemmas. This omission renders ethics unable to capture moral experience, and what good is ethics if it doesn’t speak to the moral life as we experience it? This presents a challenge for theology as well. This dissertation takes seriously Williams’s concerns and investigates the possibility of tragic dilemmas within a Christian context. I develop a defense of tragic dilemmas within a Christian virtue framework using feminist insights. I argue that in a tragic dilemma an agent deliberates on, with sufficient knowledge, an issue that involves non-negotiable moral requirements in line with Christian obligations to protect human life and the vulnerable. A tragic dilemma causes great harm and can “mar” the agent’s life. The agent is morally responsible for the harm caused and/or the obligation not acted upon. However, culpability is mitigated due to the constraints of the situation as long as the agent acts with “repugnance of the will.” When involvement in a tragic dilemma produces emotional harm this has the power to undermine character because, as I argue, passions and the moral life are inextricably related. In turn, the agent’s life is “marred.” In light of this, Christian healing is necessary after involvement in a tragic dilemma. In the first half of this dissertation, I investigate moral dilemmas in general. In Chapter 1, I layout the major philosophical debates surrounding moral dilemmas and I highlight touchstones, questions, ambiguities, and problems to bring to theology—issues around logic, autonomy, the nature of moral requirements, blame, restitution, and what constitutes a tragic dilemma. In Chapter 2, I assess the theological response to moral dilemmas vis-à-vis Aquinas. Although Aquinas explicitly denies the possibility for moral dilemmas that are not the agent’s fault, I find new points of contact between Aquinas and moral dilemma theorists. In light of this, there is space for the possibility of moral dilemmas in a Christian virtue context, but this understanding is beyond the boundaries set-up by Aquinas. In the second half of the dissertation, I move to discuss tragic dilemmas, specifically. In Chapter 3, I use Christian thought and feminist insights to develop my definition of tragic dilemmas. As real-life cases of moral injury from war show, tragic dilemmas can cause emotional harm. In Chapter 4, I offer Christian strategies for healing from tragic dilemmas. Because we are social beings and because society often bears some blame for the occurrence of tragic dilemmas, healing must also happen in, with, and among the community member. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Resumo: O trabalho enfatiza o pensamento de Lessing no seu limiar sobre a teoria da tragédia, singularizando o conceito de compaixão e a fundamentação desse elemento no contexto trágico segundo a Poética de Aristóteles. Para tanto, é proposta uma tradução das Briefwechsel über das Trauerspiel (Cartas sobre a Tragédia), onde Lessing desenvolve diálogos epistolares com Christoph Friedrich Nicolai e Moses Mendelssohn na formação de conceitos sobre a poética do trágico. Conclui com a tarefa de reflexão crítica capaz de estabelecer uma concepção filosófica da tragédia. / The work emphasizes Lessing\'s thought on his threshold on the theory of tragedy, singling out the concept of compassion and the grounding of this element in the tragic context according to Aristotle\'s Poetics. Therefore, a translation of the Briefwechsel über das Trauerspiel (Letters on Tragedy) is proposed where Lessing develops epistolary dialogues with Christoph Friedrich Nicolai and Moses Mendelssohn to build on concepts about the poetics of the tragic. Finally, it ends with a critical reflection capable of establishing a philosophical conception of tragedy.