Nowadays,there is a growing concern that the term tragedy has been abused to such an extent that it has lost its original significance.This interview with the Canadian literary critic Ato Quayson explores the meaning of tragedy with a postcolonial sensibility,in the tragic tradition,and under contemporary context.In the interview,Quayson elaborates his recent research on postcolonial literature and theorizations of tragedy,underscoring that the parameters of what constitutes postcolonial tragedy can only be established through a link to the Western tragic tradition.For Quayson,what allows us to transcend the limitations of humanity is our alertness to what makes us human and our preparedness to defend at the cost of our own lives the universal human desires.This is also postcolonial tragedy’s significance to contemporary existence,hence the urgency of tragedy today.
