This is a collection of documents on the most enduring of literary genres - tragedy - offering a re-evaluation of its significance in the light of the critical attention that it has received during the past 150 years. The work looks at the debate about genre which provoked and challenged categorical discussion since the appearance of Aristotle"s Poetics and looks at the foundation of much contemporary thinking about tragedy, found in the writings of Hegel, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. It also considers how Marxism and the psycho-analytical writings of Freud have extended the horizons of the subject. The study reflects the explosion of interest in the areas of post-structuralism, sociology of culture, social anthropology, feminism, deconstruction, and the study of ritual, whereby new questions are being asked about this exploration of human experience.