Benjamin distinguishes Greek tragedy as sacrifice from baroque Trauerspiel as funereal pageant

Evidence

For “tragedy,” which he limits to ancient Greece as a phenomenon, is a sacrificial drama in which the hero is offered up to the gods for atonement. Trauerspiel, on the other hand, which encompasses the Baroque generally, Elizabethans and Calderon as well as the seventeenth-century German playwrights, is something that might best be initially characterized as a pageant: a funereal pageant—so might the word be most adequately rendered. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 153

Categorization

• DEFINE: Trauerspiel is defined against tragedy as a funereal pageant, a sacrificial hero-marked form.
• XREF: Directly connects to Benjamin’s The Origin of German Tragic Drama and its later uptake in Adorno and Jameson. — connects to: Baroque drama’s theme is mourning over social power, not fate — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 315

Broader Connections

• Baroque drama’s theme is mourning over social power, not fate #expands (0.82) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 315