The Role of Tragedy and the Tragic in Gadamer’s Aesthetics and Hermeneutics

This article discusses Hans-Georg Gadamer’s conception of tragedy and the tragic. We move from the basic presuppositions: (1) that the question concerning tragedy and the tragic undoubtedly belongs to the fundamental questions that have characterized the whole history of Western thought; (2) that Gadamer surely belongs to the main representatives of twentieth-century continental thought and his hermeneutical aesthetics undoubtedly represents, in turn, one of the most considerable and substantial aspects of his entire philosophy; (3) that notwithstanding the great importance of art and aesthetic experience in Gadamer’s thought, his conception of tragedy and the tragic has actually received little attention by interpreters and scholars of his philosophical hermeneutics. Our aim is then to show that, although research contributions on this aspect of Gadamer’s philosophy are quite rare and sporadic, the question concerning tragedy and the tragic plays a decisive role in Truth and Method: more precisely, in defining Gadamer’s concept of the structure of human experience (in general) and in serving as a model for his understanding of aesthetic experience (in particular). On this basis, and by adopting a comparative perspective that takes other authors’ contributions into account, we finally explain why Gadamer’s conception also represents in our view a highly promising answer to the longstanding question concerning the origins of Greek tragedy.