Baroque drama’s theme is mourning over social power, not fate

Evidence

Its theme is not tragic fate (from which nothing can be learned) but the mourning and sorrow that are invested in the dangerous exercise of social reason and social power. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 315

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Benjamin distinguishes Greek tragedy as sacrifice from baroque Trauerspiel as funereal pageant — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 153