Is tragedy possible in the modern era? In his book

(1961), George Steiner takes the view that Ibsen's social-realist plays in prose, such as

and

, in effect killed off tragic drama: “Tragedy speaks not of secular dilemmas which may be resolved by rational innovation, but of the unaltering bias toward inhumanity and destruction in the drift of the world. But in these plays of Ibsen's radical period, such is not the issue. There are specific remedies to the disasters which befall the characters, and it is Ibsen's purpose to make us see these remedies and bring them about.” George Steiner is right to perceive that such plays as

and

are not reconcilable with classical tragedy, but it can be argued that Ibsen does not reject…

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Citation: Newton, Ken. "Modern Tragedy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 February 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1371, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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