Affect Theory Genre and the Example of Tragedy employs Silvan Tomkins' Affect-Script theory
of human psychology to explore the largely unacknowledged emotions of disgust and shame in
tragedy. The book begins with an overview of Tomkins' relationship to both traditional
psychoanalysis and theories of human motivation and emotion before considering tragedy via
case studies of Oedipus Hamlet and Death of a Salesman. Aligning Affect-Script theory with
literary genre studies this text explores what motivates fictional characters within the
closed conditions of their imagined worlds and how we as an audience relate to and understand
fictional characters as motivated humans.
