Common refrain today is that tragedy is either not possible or hopelessly unable to do justice to our age. Arguments for this view are diverse. They include, among others, the transition from what the Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico called the age of heroes, where one single individual could still direct the course of history, to the age of men, when the due procedure of civic institutions, and no longer the great individual, became the guarantor of order, justice, and historical change.

I, too, believe that tragedy is not as vibrant a genre as it once was, but that claim does not imply that tragedy will not come again (we have had ages without great tragedies, such as the Roman age), nor does it mean that tragedy is not valid as an aesthetic form (our modest number of tragedies may speak against our age). It also does not mean that tragedy is not present in subtle and often overlooked ways.

Vestiges of the tragic remain, I argue, first, in a small number of stage tragedies, albeit with distinctly modern accents, which move away from some of the conventions of traditional tragedy; second, in a form analogous to, but different from, tragedy, which I call the drama of suffering; third, in the parody of tragedy, which may not only mock tragedy but in some instances may indirectly and paradoxically reinforce the value of tragedy; fourth, in literature beyond drama, for example, in novels and films; and finally, outside art altogether.

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I take tragedy to be a form that exhibits the organic connection between greatness and suffering, that is, a specific form of greatness necessarily leads to suffering. I note at least three ways in which tragedy can be realized. In the tragedy of self-sacrifice the hero pursues the good despite knowing that she will suffer for it. Prominent examples in modernity include Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons and Hochhuth’s Der Stellvertreter (The Deputy). In the tragedy of stubbornness the hero exhibits greatness in realizing secondary virtues, such as ambition, courage, and steadfastness, which, however, are in the service of an ultimately unjust or aberrant goal and which drive her and often others to ruin.