A new interpretation of tragedy - from our tragic poets' perspective - The Art of Tragedy & the Battle Against It explains how a tragedy works as art. It disagrees with how our literary critics have always explained a tragedy morally. It explains how a tragedy produces its dramatic and tragic impact from a violation of an audience's expectation, from a principle of dramatic incongruity. It disagrees with how our literary critics have always explained a tragedy instead as a natural result of a tragic hero's flawed activity, which satisfies an audience's expectation. It cites the dramatic...