The Tragedy of Fatherhood King Laius and the Politics of Paternity in the West

The Tragedy of Fatherhood is a tour de force that will open new avenues of research. Although the pater familias is generally considered the model for all figures of authority, his position has gone largely unaddressed in criticism except from the vantage point of the son or the subservient subject. Silke Weineck's elegant and thought-provoking study lifts the father from the shadows and lets him speak as a figure that is at once powerful but vulnerable, the bedrock of the social order but also its most contested member. The book combines an enormous wealth of learning with grace and wit, and is written in a manner that should be the envy of all scholars in the humanities. Rochelle Tobias, Professor of German, Johns Hopkins University, USA