고대 아테네 비극을 통해 바라본 애도(哀悼)의 대중화

Abstract

This paper addresses an alternative perspective on how the political role of grief ought to be understood and examined in a democratic context. Against previous literature's focus on grief as a singular means for the elites to manipulate the masses, we suggest that grief possesses various traits that each take part in stimulating the masses to certain political reactions. By cross-analyzing Sophocles’ Antigone and Thucydides’ account of Pericles’ Funeral Oration, we explore how the democratic citizenry have been triggered into reactionary political behaviors through grief. Specifically, this study asserts that the emotion of grief contains two political traits – contagiousness and antagonism – that, when triggered simultaneously, excites reactionary political movements from the masses.