Wars, civil wars, revolutions, counter-revolutions, nationalist struggles, uprisings and their repression have been ousted from the realm of tragedy and dispatched to the authority of judges avid to punish. Is this a regression? … Often I think: tragedy has deserted us; and that may be the true punishment.

-- MILAN KUNDERA, 'The Curtain'

Man can no longer say "no" to either life or death. The three great polarities of life are extinguished in this state; man is incapable of knowing or asserting that he is tragic.

--MARIE JAANUS KURRIK, 'Literature and Negation'