She-Tragedy: A Forgotten Dramatic Genre

This class will focus on the 17th/18th-century dramatic genre known as the "she-tragedy"--dramas centered on a woman's suffering rather than the typical male tragedy (such as Oedipus Rex, King Lear, or Hamlet). The she-tragedy flourished briefly onstage before disappearing (though, in certain ways, it does persist in novels, melodramas, operas, etc.). This class will provide a history of the genre as well as information about the actresses who made the roles famous, and ends with a brief consideration of the way Diana, Princess of Wales, has been figured in the popular imagination as a heroine of modern-day "she-tragedy."

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