Whose Antigone? : the tragic marginalization of slavery / Tina Chanter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chanter, Tina, 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Antigone (Mythological character)--In literature.

Antigone.

Sophocles. Antigone.

Sophocles.

Slavery in literature.

Feminism in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (278 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this groundbreaking book, Tina Chanter challenges the philosophical and psychoanalytic reception of Sophocles' Antigone, which has largely ignored the issue of slavery. Drawing on textual and contextual evidence, including historical sources, she argues that slavery is a structuring theme of the Oedipal cycle, but one that has been written out of the record.Chanter focuses in particular on two appropriations of Antigone: The Island, set in apartheid South Africa, and Tègònni, set in nineteenth-century Nigeria. Both plays are inspired by the figure of Antigone, and yet they rework her significance in important ways that require us to return to Sophocles' "original" play and attend to some of the motifs that have been marginalized. Chanter explores the complex set of relations that define citizens as opposed to noncitizens, free men versus slaves, men versus women, and Greeks versus barbarians. Whose Antigone? moves beyond the narrow confines critics have inherited from German idealism to reinvigorate debates over the meaning and significance of Antigone, situating it within a wider argument that establishes the salience of slavery as a structuring theme.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviated Titles Cited in Text for Quick Reference

Introduction

Antigone’s Liminality

The Performative Politics and Rebirth of Antigone in Ancient Greece and Modern South Africa

Exempting Antigone from Ancient Greece

Agamben, Antigone, Irigaray

Concluding Reflections

Synopses of The Island and Tègònni

Notes

Bibliography

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438437569

1438437560

9781441697882

1441697888

OCLC:

742350423