Approaching the Idea of Tragedy in the Non-West

On the opening page of The Death of Tragedy, George Steiner famously declares: All men are aware of tragedy in life. But tragedy as a form of drama is not universal. Oriental art knows violence, grief, and the stroke of natural or contrived disaster; the Japanese theatre is full of ferocity and ceremonial death. But that representation of personal suffering and heroism which we call tragic drama is distinctive of the Western tradition.¹ The case for the uniqueness of Western tragic art which Steiner presents here stands in refreshing contrast with the relativist position widely shared by cultural critics today.