8 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Athenian tragic playwright who fought at Marathon and wrote the Oresteia — the only surviving complete Greek trilogy — whose work presents justice as the evolution from blood vengeance to civic law, under the guidance of Athena.
Shakespeare's 1603 tragedy — following Prince Hamlet's paralysis after his father's murder by his uncle — the most performed play in history and the supreme literary treatment of consciousness, indecision, and mortality.
Hardy's 1895 final novel following Jude Fawley — a stonemason's apprentice who dreams of attending Christminster University, is trapped by marriage, and sees every aspiration crushed — ending with the suicide of Jude's son Father Time and Jude's own death, causing a public outcry that led Hardy to abandon novel writing.
Roman Stoic philosopher, playwright, and statesman — tutor and advisor to Emperor Nero — author of Letters from a Stoic and On the Shortness of Life — whose philosophy is the most practically oriented Stoic writing.
Roman statesman, philosopher, and dramatist — tutor and advisor to Nero — author of the Letters to Lucilius and Stoic essays (On the Shortness of Life, On Anger) — forced to commit suicide by Nero — whose personal gap between Stoic teaching and wealthy imperial life is the most discussed philosophical irony in Roman history.
Athenian tragic playwright who wrote Oedipus Rex, Antigone, and Electra — winning the City Dionysia festival 18 times — and whose work represents the peak of Greek tragic form: the individual destroyed by forces larger than themselves while revealing their essential character.
Susan Rowland's Jungian reading of Thomas Hardy's fiction — analyzing Hardy's tragic novels through the lens of archetypal psychology, examining how Hardy's characters embody the tension between the solar ego and the chthonic unconscious.
2019 psychological thriller directed by Todd Phillips — starring Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck — an origin story for the DC villain Joker — depicting the descent of a mentally ill, socially marginalized man into nihilistic violence — the highest-grossing R-rated film at the time of release.