Abstract
Our seminar, “The Future of the Tragic,” will explore concerns that arose organically at the highly successful 2017 GSA seminar “The Tragic Today.” Both continuing and expanding the conversation, we seek to shift the questions to ask whether and under what conditions the concept of the tragic will endure. What will its status be? How can the idea of the tragic continue to be useful in theoretical, literary, performative, and political contexts, and how would it have to be rethought for these purposes? What are its possible trajectories in light of its long and varied history and its current revival (see the intense engagements with Antigone)? How can we make fruitful both ancient and modern theories of the tragic for the future? Conversely, is it possible that “the tragic” has come to an end? If so, what would take its
place? From a post-tragic age to tragic futures?
Convener: Anette Schwarz Cornell University
Convener: Silke-Maria Weineck University of Michigan
Ian Balfour York University
Claudia Brodsky Princeton University
Meryem Deniz Stanford University
Stephen Dowden Brandeis University
Karen Feldman University of California, Berkeley
Malcolm Holéczy New York University
Volker Kaiser University of Virginia
Andrea Krauss Johns Hopkins University
Jorg Kreienbrock Northwestern University
Sophia Leonard Cornell University
Moritz Meutzner University of Minnesota
Imke Meyer University of Illinois at Chicago
Barbara Nagel Princeton University
Adi Nester University of Colorado, Boulder
Heidi Schlipphacke University of Illinois at Chicago
Uwe Wirth Justus-Liebig-University Giessen