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.
WHY ANTIGONE?; INTRODUCING ANTIGONE; KEY THEMES; 1. Sophocles’ Antigone as a ‘bad’ woman; 2. The divine vs human laws controversy; 3. Gendered and anti-gendered Antigone; 4. The politics of lamentation; 5. Death and posthumanism in Sophocles’ Antigone; 6. Antigone in Rome; ANTIGONE AFTERWARDS; A. IN CRITICAL THINKING; 7. De-politicizing Antigone: Hegel, Lacan, and beyond; 8. Re-politicizing Antigone; B. IN THE ARTS AND SOCIETY; 9. From the Middle Ages to the mid-20th century; 10. War: Antigones in WWII, Nazi Occupation, and Civil-War Greece; 11. Dispossession: Palestinian Antigone; 12. Equality: Antigones of many subjectivities in the 21st century.
Biography
Efimia D. Karakantza is Associate Professor of Ancient Greek Literature at the University of Patras, Greece. Her recent focus is on metafeminist and political readings of ancient Greek literature, mainly Greek tragedy. Her latest book, Who Am I? (Mis)Identity and the Polis in Oedipus Tyrannus (HUP 2020) explores issues of identity and citizenship in the ancient polis. She is the co-editor of Ancient Necropolitics: Maltreating the living, abusing the dead in Ancient Greece, to be published by Brill (under contract).
