From Shakespeare’s Kings to Scorsese’s Kingpins

Contemporary Mob Movies and the Genre of Tragedy
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dc.bibliographicCitation.firstPage69
dc.bibliographicCitation.lastPage90
dc.bibliographicCitation.volume3
dc.contributor.authorSchwanebeck, Wieland
dc.contributor.editorHerrmann, Sebastian M.
dc.contributor.editorKrug, Ines
dc.contributor.editorMooser, Andreas
dc.contributor.editorNeugebauer, Julia
dc.contributor.editorQin, Bailing
dc.contributor.editorRavizza, Eleonora
dc.contributor.editorSchubert, Stefan
dc.contributor.editorWenk, Franziska
dc.contributor.editorZywietz, Maria
dc.date.accessioned2020-12-21T15:24:18Z
dc.date.available2020-12-21T15:24:18Z
dc.date.issued2010
dc.description.abstractFollowing a path established in Robert Warshow’s chapter on “The Gangster as Tragic Hero,” this article attempts to look at connections between the ancient genre of tragedy and contemporary mob movies. On the one hand, there are structural parallels when it comes to plot, which adheres to the formula of decline, brought about by erroneous judgments. On the other hand, mobsters are often portrayed as powerful, ruthless tyrants who retain a kind of Shakespearean grandeur. Using examples from films by Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese, and Ridley Scott, my argument links contemporary American crime drama to the origins of tragedy (as laid out by Aristotle in Poetics) and some canonical examples of the genre, like The Merchant of Venice. Having established this theoretical framework, I shall offer a detailed discussion of Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, one of the most successful mob movies in recent years. In this film, Scorsese toys with the tragic genre both on the level of plot and with regard to his flawed characters, who struggle to overcome guilt and tragic hubris, yet cannot escape their inevitable tragic downfall.
dc.description.urlhttp://www.aspeers.com/2010/schwanebeck
dc.identifier.doi10.54465/aspeers.03-08
dc.identifier.urihttp://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?fidaac-11858/724
dc.language.isoeng
dc.relation.issn18658768
dc.relation.journalaspeers
dc.relation.journalaltemerging voices in american studies
dc.rightsL::CC BY 3.0
dc.subject.ddcddc:791
dc.subject.ddcddc:810
dc.subject.ddcddc:820
dc.subject.fieldamericanstudies
dc.subject.fieldenglishstudies
dc.subject.fieldfilmstudies
dc.subject.fieldliterarystudies
dc.titleFrom Shakespeare’s Kings to Scorsese’s Kingpins
dc.title.alternativeContemporary Mob Movies and the Genre of Tragedy
dc.typearticle
dc.type.versionpublishedVersion
dspace.entity.typePublication
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aspeers 03 (2010) - Crime and America