Tragic Views of the Human Condition: Cross-Cultural Comparisons between Views of Human Nature in Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy and the Mahabharata and Bhagavadgita

by Lourens Minnema

Publisher:

Bloomsbury Academic

, 2013

Can tragic views of the human condition as known to Westerners through Greek and Shakespearean tragedy be identified outside European culture, in the Indian culture of Hindu epic drama? In what respects can the Mahabharata epic's and the Bhagavadgita's views of the human condition be called 'tragic' in the Greek and Shakespearean senses of the word?

Tragic views of the human condition are primarily embedded in stories. Only afterwards are these views expounded in theories of tragedy and in philosophical anthropologies. Minnema identifies these embedded views of human nature by discussing the ways in which tragic stories raise a variety of anthropological issues-issues such as coping with evil, suffering, war, death, values, power, sacrifice, ritual, communication, gender, honour, injustice, knowledge, fate, freedom. Each chapter represents one cluster of tragic issues that are explored in terms of their particular (Greek, English, Indian) settings before being compared cross-culturally. In the end, the underlying question is: are Indian views of the human condition very different from Western views?

Features

First cross-cultural examination of tragedy in Western and Indian philosophical traditions
Each chapter compares different aspects of human nature in Greek and Shakespearean and Indian tragedies
Interdisciplinary appeal across Philosophy of Religion and Literature and Philosophy

Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Introduction
1 Scope and key questions
2 Aspects of tragedy and embedded anthropological issues
3 Definition and cross-cultural applicability of the notion of the 'tragic'
4 The scholarly art of comparing cross-culturally
5 Main purpose of the comparative enterprise

Chapter 2: Narrative aspects
Part I: Greek and Shakespearean issues
1 Introduction
2 Three tragic stories in particular
3 Specific plot patterns
4 A specific world view
5 Irony
6 Specific subjects
7 Conclusions

Part II: Indian and Hindu issues
1 Summary of the plot(s) of the Mahabharata and Bhagavadgita
2 The Mahabharata's specifi c plot pattern
3 Mahabharata's specifi c world view
4 The Bhagavadgita's plot pattern and world view
5 Conclusions

Part III: Cross-cultural comparisons
1 Introduction
2 Specific subjects
3 Specific plot patterns
4 A specific world view and the role of irony

Chapter 3: Artistic–communicative aspects
Part I: Greek and Shakespearean issues
1 Introduction
2 A specific literary genre
3 Specific dialogues
4 A specific audience response
5 Conclusions

Part II: Indian and Hindu issues
1 Introduction
2 The Mahabharata's specifi c literary genre
3 The Gita's specifi c dialogue
4 The Gita's specifi c audience response
5 Conclusions

Part III: Cross-cultural comparisons
1 Introduction
2 Specific literary genres
3 Tragic mood and audience response
4 Specific dialogues

Chapter 4: Socio-political aspects
Part I: Tragic and dramatic issues
1 Introduction
2 G. F. W. Hegel's theory of tragedy
3 The state and the theatre as institutional sources of legitimation and conflict
4 Religion as an institutional source of legitimation and conflict
5 The family as an institutional source of legitimation and conflict
6 Social status defining the tragic genre
7 Conclusions

Part II: Indian and Hindu issues
1 Introduction
2 The state and the family as institutional sources of
conflict and legitimation
3 Religion as an institutional source of legitimation and conflict
4 Conclusions

Part III: Cross-cultural comparisons
1 Introduction
2 Historical origins
3 Historical functions

Chapter 5: Literary–cultural aspects
Part I: Tragic and dramatic issues
1 Introduction
2 Mythic, legendary and epic stories as narrative sources
3 The questioning of tradition and the problematization of heroes
4 Tragic conflict as a clash of cultural values
5 The power of language
6 Historical shifts in world view and view of the human being
7 Conclusions

Part II: Indian and Hindu issues
1 Introduction
2 The epic's narrative sources and functions
3 Development and debate of a socio-religious value system
4 Epic heroes embodying traditional values
5 The problematization of heroes: Karna and Yudhisthira
6 Controversial values and problematic heroes 199
7 Historico-cultural shifts in the view of the human being
8 Conclusions

Part III: Cross-cultural comparisons
1 The rearrangement of narrative sources
2 The problematization of heroes and their language
3 The testing of cultural values
4 Cultural shifts in the view of the human being

Chapter 6: Martial aspects
Part I: Tragic and dramatic issues
1 Introduction
2 The heritage of a martial culture as a given model
3 Epic and tragic testing of martial values
4 Conclusions

Part II: Indian and Hindu issues
1 Introduction
2 The idealization of heroes: Arjuna and Krishna
3 The controversial issue of kingship
4 Changes in the concept of warrior heroism
5 Conclusions

Part III: Cross-cultural comparisons
1 Warrior class and martial culture
2 Male dominance and courage, deeds and speech, violence and self-restraint
3 Status, honour and shame
4 Victor and victim in warrior heroism

Chapter 7: Psycho-ethical aspects
Part I: Tragic and dramatic issues
1 Introduction
2 K. M. Sands' theory of tragedy
3 Moral conflict
4 Confusing conflict and deliberate response: A matter of knowledge or will
5 Psychic conflict
6 Self-knowledge
7 Conclusions

Part II: Indian and Hindu issues
1 Introduction
2 Moral conflict
3 Confusing conflict and emotional response: A matter of desire or emotional appraisal
4 The vocabulary for attitudes of mind and heart
5 Confusing conflict and deliberate response: A matter of reasoning
6 Reasoning towards a spiritual solution: A matter of action, desire and purity
7 Self-knowledge
8 Conclusions

Part III: Cross-cultural comparisons
1 Moral dilemmas, actions and intentions
2 The nature of action and wrongdoing
3 Self-knowledge

Chapter 8: Religious aspects
Part I: Greek and Shakespearean issues
1 Introduction
2 H. J. Heering's theory of tragedy
3 The necessity of fate and the moral order of nature
4 The free and gradual appropriation of fate
5 Fortune
6 Divine intentions and interventions
7 Conclusions

Part II: Indian and Hindu issues
1 Introduction
2 The epic on the gods' intentions and interventions
3 The epic on fate, time and fortune
4 The epic on karma
5 The epic on fate and human effort
6 The Gita on fate, time, Krishna's predestination
and human action
7 Conclusions

Part III: Cross-cultural comparisons
1 Divine fate, time and fortune, human destiny and freedom
2 The gods
3 Human transgression of vertical and horizontal boundaries

Chapter 9: Concluding observations regarding views of the human condition
1 Introduction
2 Narrative aspects
3 Artistic–communicative aspects
4 Socio-political aspects
5 Literary–cultural aspects
6 Martial aspects
7 Psycho-ethical aspects
8 Religious aspects
9 The ever-changing bird's-eye view

Notes
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index

Praise for Tragic Views of the Human Condition

This ambitious study explores, in nine chapters, a wide range of aspects of tragedy in ancient India, Greece, and Shakespeare. It is marked throughout by deep scholarship and sensitivity to cross-cultural and historical differences. Minnema begins with narrative and literary-cultural issues: plot patterns, specificity of literary genres, world views, mythic and epic traditions in India and Greece that are questioned in tragic stories, and ethical dilemmas faced by epic/tragic heroes. Then he analyzes sociopolitical aspects of tragic narrative--the state, family, and religion as sources of legitimation and conflict. Closely related is discussion of the martial ethos of heroes, which is challenged in tragic narratives. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty.

The book is particularly strong on the ethical systems of these texts, and has useful observations about all of the texts ... [A] thought-provoking comparison ... In short, there is much here of value.

Lourens Minnema's ambitious attempt to study the tragic predicament in Greek and Elizabethan tragedy, the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita, results in a work that is ... challenging in scope ... The outcome ... is enlightening and subtle ... I will certainly want to re-read the book.

This book represents a new kind of scholarly Comparative World Literature for a new kind of global, multicultural readership with common anxieties, a readership no longer in the grip of colonial attitudes of resentment and arrogance or post-colonial neurosis, one which can cross equably from one cultural tradition to another without estrangement or alienation, in pursuit of the poetry and drama that reflect a shared human condition. Lourens Minnema's study of European and Indian notions of the tragic takes us from the Maharabharata and the Bhagavad-Gita-made familiar to us in the West by Peter Brook's theatre and T S Eliot's poetry-to Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus and Antigone to Shakespeare's Hamlet. It is writing like this, elegant, eloquent and judicious, that contributes to the formation of a shared literary and critical canon. Minnema focuses first on the stories in which views of human nature are embedded and only then on the philosophical and theological theories that derive from them. His ability to move between literary, philosophical and theological discussion provides a masterly example of interdisciplinarity.

In this multi-faceted and comprehensive study, Lourens Minnema explores subject-matter of wide appeal: tragedy and human nature. The reader is immediately engaged by a direct and accessible style, and will benefit from a wealth of absorbing detail and stimulating analysis. This work is a successful demonstration of the value, scope and potential of cross-cultural comparison.

Minnema forges a powerful way to bring textual traditions from Eastern and Western cultures into dialogue and mutual edification. Erudite and insightful, Minnema makes real contributions to philosophy, literature, philology by restoring to the human sciences the most important questions concerning humanity. This is the most original reading of the Bhagavad-Gita in the last few decades. Minnema avoids the mind-numbing mechanics of text-historical methods and bravely asks intelligent questions-questions these texts themselves grapple with, not questions generated in academic laboratories. This book is a pleasure to read.

Product Details

• Title: Tragic Views of the Human Condition: Cross-Cultural Comparisons between Views of Human Nature in Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy and the Mahabharata and Bhagavadgita
• Author: Lourens Minnema
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2013
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781441100696, 9781501305788, 1501305786, 1441100695
• Resource ID: LLS:9781441100696
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-11T22:11:10Z

About the Author

Lourens Minnema is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies in the Department of Philosophy of Religion and Comparative Study of Religions at VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.