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‘The Significance of Tragedy’ (1802)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

J. M. Bernstein
Affiliation:
New School University, New York
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Summary

The significance of tragedy is most easily understood [begriffen] through paradox. Because all capability is divided justly and equally, everything that is original appears not in its original strength, not truly, but genuinely only in its weakness, so that in reality the light of life and appearance belong to the weakness of each whole. Now in the tragic, the sign is in itself meaningless, without power, but that which is original is straight out. For really the original can only appear in its weakness, but insofar as the sign in itself is posited as meaningless = 0, the original too, the hidden ground of everything in nature can represent itself. If nature genuinely represents itself in its weakest gift [Gabe], then, when [nature] presents itself in its strongest gift, the sign = 0.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

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