This book explores the figure of Antigone and her many reconceptualizations from antiquity to the present. One of the most popular heroines of classical literature, Antigone defied political authority to carry out the forbidden burial of her brother.
Readers will become familiar with the key themes of Antigone’s story, such as the law and politics, gender, and death, tracing their survival and transformations over time. Notably, the book explores the thorough de-politicization of the heroine in philosophy and psychoanalysis, followed by a reversal and re-politicization through feminist and socio-political theories. It provides a useful tool to approach postmodern receptions of Antigone in the arts and society in the modern era, particularly in the contexts of occupied and civil war-era Greece, in Palestine, and in Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon. It also addresses issues of Antigone-like struggles of individuals or collectivities to overcome obstacles of systemic and racialized violence and gender-based oppression in the 21st century, while challenging heteronormative practices and policies to allow new subjectivities to emerge. Though Antigone’s story is complex, Karakantza provides an accessible, fascinating overview of this enduring figure’s legacy and impact over the course of history.
Antigone provides a comprehensive study of this classical heroine, suitable for students and scholars of classical literature, reception studies, and gender studies. It also appeals to theatre practitioners interested in adapting and staging Sophocles’ Antigone, or any Antigone of the ancient sources.
Author(s): Efmia D. Karakantza
Series: Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 252
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Gods and heroes of the ancient world: series foreword
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Note on translations used in the volume
WHY ANTIGONE?
The scope of this book
INTRODUCING ANTIGONE
The family
Oedipus casting a curse upon his sons
Antigone
Sophocles’ Antigone
Overview
PART I: KEY THEMES
1. ANTIGONE AS A ‘BAD’ WOMAN
Antigone as a threatening woman-in-charge figure
Antigone as a ‘bad’ mother and wife
Overview
2. THE DIVINE VS HUMAN LAWS CONTROVERSY
The dichotomy of divine and human laws in Sophocles’ Antigone: true or false?
Not all dead are equal
Antigone disobeying a political order
Non-burial in Euripides and Aeschylus
Overview
3. GENDERED AND ANTI-GENDERED ANTIGONE
Antigone in exile
Antigone in Thebes
Sophocles’ anti-gendered Antigone or Antigone goes public
Haimon defending Antigone or here comes the groom
Re-gendering Antigone or stepping back into the female world
Overview
4. THE POLITICS OF LAMENTATION
Dissident lamentation
Lamenting the brothers in the Seven against Thebes
The pathos in mourning the three slain in Phoenician Women
Lamenting the father in Oedipus at Colonus
Sophocles’ Antigone: the most dissident of all lamentations
Overview
5. DEATH AND POSTHUMANISM IN SOPHOCLES’ ANTIGONE
Tragedy and posthumanism
Dying becomes her
Antigone in the Light of László Nemes’ Son of Saul
Antigone: restating her humanity
Overview
6. ANTIGONE IN ROME
Seneca’s Antigone
Antigone in Statius’ Thebaid
Overview
PART II: ANTIGONE AFTERWARDS
SECTION A: In critical thinking
7. DE-POLITICIZING ANTIGONE: HEGEL, LACAN, AND BEYOND
Hegel’s Antigone
Criticism
Lacan and Žižek on Antigone
Classical scholarship in depoliticizing Antigone
Overview
8. RE-POLITICIZING ANTIGONE: IRIGARAY, BUTLER, AND BEYOND
Irigaray
Butler: Antigone’s claim
When lamentation becomes political praxis
Overview
SECTION B: In the arts and society
9. FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE MID-20TH CENTURY
Middle Ages to renaissance
18th–19th centuries
20th–21st centuries: resistance
Overview
10. WAR: ANTIGONES IN WWII, NAZI OCCUPATION, AND CIVIL- WAR GREECE
Kalavrita des mille Antigones (‘Kalavryta of the Thousand Antigones’) by Charlotte Delbo, 1979
Elias Venezis’ Antigone, 1950
Aris Alexandrou’s Antigone in post-war Greece
An Antigone born in a state of exception: from the Nazi Occupation to Al Dab’a and Makronisos
(Back to) Aris Alexandrou’s Antigone: the play
Overview
11. DISPOSSESSION: PALESTINIAN ANTIGONE
Dispossessed Palestine
The 2011 production of Antigone by Adel Hakim
Overview
12. EQUALITY ANTIGONES OF MANY SUBJECTIVITIES: PROJECTS AND FILMS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Projects: Antigone now, Antigone in Ferguson, Anti/gones_Anti/somata
We are not princesses by Bridgette Auger and Itab Azzam (2018)
Antigone by Sophie Deraspe (2019)
Strella by Panos H. Koutras (2009)
Overview
Further reading
Works cited
General Index
Index Locorum
