In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

356 CODES COLLAPSED
taking into account these limits is it possible to appreciate the beauty and
existential value of Actions regardless of their effectiveness.
Such sophisticated discussions notwithstanding, frequent use of the
words "Tragedy" and "tragic" is indeed attended by the trivialization
that Siegfried Kracauer mentions. Often these terms are nothing but
high-sounding formulas with which authors try to protect collective and
individual subjects against allegations of guilt. When Unamuno evokes
"the tragedy that is intensifying over my poor Spain" (Unamuno, 188),
he just wants to make sure that nobody but the members of the present
government will be held responsible for the political crisis in his country.
When the critics of Jules Romains' play Le Dictateur praise it as "the
tragedy of the leader in modern democracy" (Romains, 31), they have
understood that the author wishes to present dictatorship as a viable
political solution and to set aside its negative aspects. So common is the
apologetic use of the concept "Tragedy" that some literary texts employ
it with obvious irony. Early in Agatha Christie's Murder of Roger Ackroyd,
the first-person narrator describes as a "tragedy" the very case in
which he will eventually emerge as the culprit (Christie, 10). Even the
brutal dictator in Ramon del Valle-Inchin's novel Tirana Banderas does
not hesitate to mention his own "politician's tragedy" (Valle-Inchin,
245). Adolf Hitler, however, is completely unironic when he refers to the
"tragedy" of the Hapsburg monarchy (Hitler, 79, 175). For the word
helps him ignore the impossibility of reconciling his own political program
with a nostalgic view of history.
Related Entries
Bullfighting, Gomina, Movie Palaces, Murder, Polarities, Stars, Action
vs. Impotence, Authenticity vs. Artificiality, Present vs. Past, Uncertainty
vs. Reality, Authenticity = Artificiality (Life), Immanence = Transcendence
(Death)
References
Erich Auerbach, "Paul-Louis Courier." Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift fur Literaturwissenschaft
und Geistesgeschichte 4 (1926): 514-547.
Erich Auerbach, "Racine und die Leidenschaften." Germanisch-Romanische
Monatsschrift 14 (1926): 371-380.