TY - CHAP
T1 - Spiritual Idealism and Tragic Wisdom
T2 - An Essay on King Lear
AU - Baker, Robert
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - Tragedy can be said to do away with our illusions, with the idealized stories we tell about ourselves, reminding us of the disasters and failures to which we are so vulnerable. Yet tragedy is not only about suffering but also about the ways we cope with or learn through suffering. Does tragedy, in this respect, tilt back toward the spiritual idealism it contradicts? This essay takes up this question through a reading of King Lear. The play presents a tragic story of ruin while at the same time exploring an existential concern as old as Aeschylus and the major Jewish prophets: the transformation of heart and vision in the dark of suffering.
AB - Tragedy can be said to do away with our illusions, with the idealized stories we tell about ourselves, reminding us of the disasters and failures to which we are so vulnerable. Yet tragedy is not only about suffering but also about the ways we cope with or learn through suffering. Does tragedy, in this respect, tilt back toward the spiritual idealism it contradicts? This essay takes up this question through a reading of King Lear. The play presents a tragic story of ruin while at the same time exploring an existential concern as old as Aeschylus and the major Jewish prophets: the transformation of heart and vision in the dark of suffering.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85153808391&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-73061-1_13
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-73061-1_13
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85153808391
SN - 9783030730604
SP - 323
EP - 346
BT - Fictional Worlds and Philosophical Reflection
PB - Springer International Publishing
ER -