Tragedy and State

Abstract

The first question a teacher of literature faces today is summed up in the needling word ‘relevance’. What is the relevance of his subject, his period, his theme? If he doesn’t ask himself, his students will certainly ask him, in no deferential tone. The question is not of course new: replies to it have been formulated since the time of Plato. One convenient reply is that what is interesting must be relevant; if not to our practical needs, then to our mental growth. The proper study of mankind is man; literature is the stuff of human experience; hence its interest, and hence its relevance. All the same, priorities must be reckoned with. In the present-day world, alienated in poverty and affluence, dehumanised by state bureaucracies and military machines, the most urgent study of mankind would seem to be not the eternal human condition, but the prospect of survival in the face of impersonal power drives. What priority can be staked out for the literature of another age — or, to be quite specific, for Jacobean tragedy? While turning this over in my mind, I happened to read an article by The Times drama critic describing some current theatre productions in Prague.¹ The writer began by stating his initial sense of embarrassment at visiting Czechoslovakia at this point in her history for no better reason than to report on plays.