Beyond the ancient and the modern: thinking the tragic with Williams and Kitto

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2024

Authors

Bento, Sílvia (Author) FLUP

Journal

Title: Topoi: an International Review of Philosophy

Vol. 43

Pages: 575-586

ISSN: 0167-7411

Publisher: Springer Nature

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Other information

DOI: 10.1007/s11245-023-09996-1

Abstract (EN): The philosophy of Bernard Williams, recognised as a prominent expression of ethical thought, presents an intense dialogue with ancient Greek tragic culture. Combining erudition and elegance, Williams evokes Greek tragedies to discuss modern ethical ideas and conceptions. Our article intends to consider Williams’ thought from a cultural point of view: we propose analysing Williams’ cultural methodology, which may be described as a way of thinking beyond the traditional dichotomies between the ancient and the modern, especially concerning the notion of the tragic. Accordingly, we shall examine the affinities between ancient and modern tragic cultures by identifying common narrative and poetical elements. To do so, we shall consider the interpretation of Hamlet, developed by the classicist scholar H.D.F. Kitto. In Form and Meaning in Drama: A Study of Six Greek Plays and of “Hamlet” (1956), Kitto proposes reading Hamlet in close alliance with Oedipus Tyrannus. Kitto maintains that both tragedies are poetical expressions of a shared tragic element: miasma, or “pollution”, a concept thoroughly treated by Williams in the third chapter of Shame and Necessity. Our article aims to combine Williams’ cultural methodology—we may call it the deconstruction of the repeated theoretical frameworks regarding the differences between the ancient and the modern—and Kitto’s reading of Hamlet in line with Oedipus Tyrannus, which may be understood as an illustration of the persistence of common tragic elements beyond time and the historical separation of cultural periods. Our perspective shall be both cultural and aesthetical.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

Notes: Accepted 08 December 2023; Published 20 December 2023; Published: 15 February 2024

No. of pages: 12