THE LOCUS OF TRAGEDY
University of Antwerp, 23-25 November 2006
Organizers:
Paul Vanden Berghe, Johan Taels (Centre for Ethics)
Arthur Cools (Centre for Philosophy and Literature)
Kurt Vanhoutte, Thomas Crombez (Aisthesis: Centre for Theatre Studies)
Philippe Meers (Research Group Visual Culture/ECREA)
Confirmed Keynote Speakers:
Simon Critchley (New School of Social Research, New York)
Dennis J. Schmidt (Pennsylvania State University)
Jos de Mul (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam)
Karen de Boer (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)
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Ask for the tragic and Europe will answer.
Leaving behind the philosophers' enthusiasm of the 19th century, and the theatre directors' excessive performances of the 20th century, ‘tragedy' and ‘the tragic' now seem little more than vague containers. However, it appears that we still discover a tragic essence in our personal lives. Time and again tragedy is being registered, written down and staged.
First of all, the colloquium wants to open a philosophical perspective on the tragic. What is the locus of tragedy? Does it relate to metaphysics, the gods, destiny, and chance? Or is it a matter of ethics, of the Law and its transgression? Does man himself occupy the locus of tragedy, because of his unreasonable and boundless desires, as many philosophers have suggested? Is man today still able to account for his tragic condition?
Additionally we have to discuss the dominant reception history of the tragic, which, especially in the vein of the christian tradition, has deemed tragedy an untimely genre along with other ‘grand narratives'. The opposite proposition must also be considered: suppose that christianity generates a unique and perhaps even more pronounced vision of the tragic?
Or do we locate the tragic first and foremost in the esthetic imagination? Is not the theatrical genre of tragedy the locus authenticus of all things tragic? Is there more to the tragic than drama and play? What about the uncanny pleasure of the audience watching human suffering? Does tragedy help people in dealing with the tragic experiences of everyday life? How far does this performative enactment reach?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, when these philosophical questions are posed at the turn of the millennium, the move is into the realm of the media. Contemporary media keep confronting us with tragic situations, in a variety of genres and formats: reality tv, news shows, blockbuster movies, etc. But how tragic are these spectacles? Does the mediatisation in television and film not multiply the suffering in a way that reaches a degree of absurdity? Are the effects of these multiple representations not just as comical as they are tragical? And how are these tragic representations constructed in the signifying practices of audiences? In short: is the contemporary mediascape the locus par excellence for the experience of contemporary tragedy or do media merely perform false representations of the tragic?
Finally, media theory urges us to focus on the technological conditions of these representations. Does the use of technologies engender a specific awareness of the tragic? What are the similarities and the differences between ancient techne and contemporary technology in the wake of tragedy? And how does today's multimedia environment necessitate a return to tragedy?
Hence the need for more precise questions and understandings: how can we grasp the place that media and technology assign to the tragic? How does this relate to the other arts, such as the theatre, birthplace of tragedy?
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Contributions for “The Locus of Tragedy” may be submitted to the organizers as listed below. Papers could possibly but not exclusively address:
Ethical, psychoanalytical, and metaphysical approaches of the tragic
Tragedy and narrative (e.g., the modern novel)
Film, representation and tragedy
Media, reality and discourses on the tragic
Technologies of the tragic
Mimesis and theatricality
The tragic sovereign in drama (e.g., the early modern period)
The tragic body
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Please submit abstracts (500 words) to tragedy@ua.ac.be before 22 May 2006.
Speakers will be notified of acceptance by 7 July 2006.
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“The Locus of Tragedy” is funded by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO - Vlaanderen).
The media/film sessions are sponsored by the film studies section of ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association).