Research On The Idea Of Raymond Williams' Modern Revolutionary Tragedy

Practice writing in tragedy has a long history and tradition in the Western world,and so does the studying about the tragedy.In the 1960s,however,the western academic world was filled with the voice of tragedy decline and George Steiner is its representative.In this situation,Raymond Williams wrote the refutation and put forward the idea of modern tragedy.Among them,the most notable is that he used the modern dimension to combine revolution and tragedy closely,which seems definitely unrelated.He fully expounded the homology and homogeneity of revolution and tragedy and clearly confirms the tragedy of the revolution,leaving an indelible mark for the history of western tragedy theory.In fact,Williams is not the first man of making the connection between revolution and tragedy and shaping revolutionary tragedy theory.There emerges a related discussion,that is Karl Heinrich Marx and Friedrich Von Engels criticized Ferdinand Lassalle's Franz von Sickingen.Nevertheless,Williams' idea of modern revolutionary tragedy is based on his particular times,particular social and historical background and its firm socialist belief.Despite he is influenced by Marxism,his unique idea of modern revolutionary tragedy is very different from Marx and Engels' theory.So studying Williams' idea of modern revolutionary tragedy is a worthy topic.In view of the research status in China and the West neglecting in Williams' idea of modern revolutionary tragedy seriously,this paper is divided into four chapters focusing on his idea of modern revolutionary tragedy on the basis of closing reading and referring to Marx and Engels' theory of revolutionary tragedy.Chapter 1 begins with a brief review of Raymond Williams' life experience.Then this paper points out that Marxism and Frank Raymond Leavis' thought influenced Williams' theoretical construction of the modern revolutionary tragedy.Last but not least,this paper explained modernity,capitalist crisis,the voice of tragedy decline and other circumstances to promote the formation of the idea of modern revolutionary tragedy.Chapter 2 mainly discusses the theory of modern tragedy as the theoretical basis of modern revolutionary tragedy.This chapter mainly includes three parts.Firstly,this paper discusses the concept of structures of feeling which is the foothold and entry point of Williams' theoretical study of modern tragedy and modern revolutionary tragedy.The second is the definition of the tragedy and its use in the art,everyday and aesthetic context.Finally,this paper talks about Williams' concept of modern tragedy.This part deals with the theoretical sources of modern tragic ideas and the discussion of accidents,order,the destruction of the hero,the irreversible action,and the emphasis on evil.Chapter 3 continues to discuss Williams' idea of modern revolutionary tragedy,which mainly includes two parts.One is to find the connection between the tragedy and the revolution.Williams pointed out that the tragedy and revolution are separated from each other in the view of liberalism so that people cannot understand the fact of revolution and tragedy.Therefore,Williams chose the orientation of the socialist concept of revolution in order to find the relationship between the revolution and tragedy and put forward the idea of modern revolutionary tragedy.The other is to trace Williams' revolutionary practices,pointing out that it provides the idea of modern revolutionary tragedy with an inexhaustible stream of power.Chapter 4 is divided in two sections to discuss revolutionary tragedy.The first section uses structure of feelings to deal with the revolutionary tragedy in the real world.The second part discusses Bertolt Brecht's works which refer to the revolutionary tragedy in the literary works studied by Williams.