Hans Urs Von Balthasar and the Question of Tragedy in the Novels of Thomas Hardy

includes index and biblioraphy

1. Balthasar and Tragedy ............1 Tragedy`s Revelatory Nature .............12 Tragedy and God ............23 Dionysus Over Plato ..........26 Christ the True tragic Hero ............29 Human Suffering ..................32 The Influence of Hegel .......34 2. Balthasar`s Limited Conception of Tragedy ..........39 Balthasar`s Criteria for Authentic Tragedy ...........39 Tragedy after the Greeks ........42 Balthasar and Tragedy`s Future .........45 Tragedy` Indefinition .......50 3. Balthasar`s Critique of the Novel and the Return of the Native ...........57 Balthasar and the novel ..........58 The Return of the Native .............67 4. The Mayor of Casterbridge and Prosaic Reality ............97 Balthasar`s Aristocratic Taste ............98 The Realistic Novel ...........109 The Mayor of Casterbridge ..............118 5. Tess of the D`urbervilles and its narrator ........137 Distance in Balthasar ..........138 Hardy`s Narratorial Closeness in Tess of the D`Urbervilles .........152 Balthasar`s Undramatic Theo-Drama .....174 6. Jude the Obscure and ignoble Suffering ......183 Tragic suffering and Balthasar ........184 Tradegy and Christology ..........194 Jude the obscure and Meaningless suffering ........195