Tragic and Tragedy: Ancient Conflicts and New Survivals

The essay starts from the need to underline the profound irreconcilability existing in modern times between the terms of tragedy and tragic: two terms that, unlike what happened in the Greek tragedy, promptly revealed a profound divergence over the course of time. The conflict between opposing principles, but also deeply interwoven with each other, personified in the Birth of the tragedy of Nietzsche by Apollo and Dionysius, is present only in Greek tragedy. With the advent of Christianity - according to Hegel's interpretation in his youthful writings - precisely the figure of Christ bears witness, in the suffering required to bring his message of salvation, to the greatest tragedy. After this decisive event there will be no more room for the tragedy considered in its classical form. The tragic spirit will survive, with increasing vigor, in completely secularized genres: first of all, the novel