Revenge Tragedy

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Matthew Woodcock (University of East Anglia)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Dates

Date of occurrence 1561-1642

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Genres and Modes

Tragedy

Revenge tragedy is a curiously paradoxical genre. Its practitioners take one of the most primitive, brutal human impulses as their essential subject matter and turn this into complex, often deeply thought-provoking aesthetic experiences. There are innumerable examples of stories in which an individual or group seek vengeance against the perpetrator of a crime or perceived injustice, and revenge as a theme can be found in works of almost every kind including drama, poetry, prose fiction, medieval saga and romance, opera, movies and graphic novels. It would be wrong, however, to automatically class every story or text in which a character seeks to get even with someone else as revenge tragedy. Strictly speaking, a distinction can be made b…

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1585 words

Citation: Woodcock, Matthew. "Revenge Tragedy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 June 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=951, accessed 27 November 2024.]

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Revenge Tragedy

Dates

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Genres and Modes

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