Abstract
This paper attempts in a preliminary way to bring out the 'pragmatics' or 'performativity' in Hegel's conception of tragedy and the tragic in the Phenom- enology of Spirit. The secondary literature has tended to focus on ethical content (the tragic) at the expense of cultic form and dramaturgical enactment (tragedy); and even with the tragic it has tended to overlook the different linguistic levels in use. I argue that the peculiar term 'Individualitat' allows Hegel, in chapter VI, to describe a logic of equivocal representation he sees at work in ancient 'Sittlichkeit' (ethical life). I argue furthermore that we seriously misrepresent Hegel's concep- tion of tragedy if we do not include the astonishing claims made of 'Art-religion' in chapter VII. Here tragedy takes on a meta-aesthetic color. Hegel sees tragedy as more than an ancient phenomenon, but as a recurring feature in attempts to represent (vorstellen) a speculative truth in sensuous form.
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