The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary English Tragedy is a detailed study of the idea of the tragic in the political plays of David Hare, Howard Barker, Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, Mark Ravenhill, Sarah Kane, and Jez Butterworth. Through an in-depth analysis of over sixty of their works, Sean Carney argues that their dramatic exploration of tragic experience is an integral part of their ongoing politics. This approach allows for a comprehensive rather than selective study of both the politics and poetics of their work.

Carney’s attention to the tragic enables him to find a common discourse among the canonical English playwrights of an older generation and representatives of the nineties generation, challenging the idea that there is a sharp generational break between these groups. Finally, Carney demonstrates that tragic experience is often denied by the social discourse of Englishness, and that these playwrights make a crucial critical intervention by dramatizing the tragic.

Sean Carney is an associate professor in the Department of English at McGill University.

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‘Sean Carney has written a study which every student and academic interested in contemporary English theatre, in political drama, and in the concept of tragedy has been waiting for…. This will prove a valuable resource for students in Literature and Drama.’

New Theatre Quarterly vol30:02:2014

‘The study discusses a unique combination of English playwrights and their works and offers a valuable resource for academics, serious readers and theatergoers who appreciate contemporary English drama. Highly recommended.’

Choice Magazine, vol 51:02:2013

‘Carney’s account of these plays is patient and rigorous, and his delineation of tragedy as a postmodern category cogent…His study illuminates the powerful politics contained within a theatre of joy and despair.’

Modern Drama vol 57:02:2014