library.SCOTCH: Antigone: Related Reading

Analysis

Roselli, D. K. (2006). Polyneices' body and his monument: Class, social status, and funerary commemoration in Sophocles' Antigone. Helios, 33, 135-177.
The article analyzes the class and social divisions in Athens, Greece in the fifth century based on the conflict arising from the burial of legendary character Polyneices in the play "Antigone," by Sophocles.
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The play highlights the contested role of social status in Athenian society. Female subjects dominated funerary iconography in sculpture and vase painting during the period. The description of the construction of a tomb for Polyneices implies an aristocratic burial.
Howenstein, M. (2000). The tragedy of law and the law of tragedy in Sophocles' Antigone. Legal Studies Forum, 24(3 & 4), 493-526.
The aura of Antigone envelops law as no other work of art in the history of Western civilization. In no other work of art are so many divergent understandings of law to be found in such direct, dynamic opposition to one another.
Segal, C. P. (1964). Sophocles' praise of man and the conflicts of the "Antigone". Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, 3(2), 46-66.
The Antigone is certainly a play of antitheses and conflicts, and this state of conflict is embodied in the presence on stage of two protagonists, each diametrically opposed to the other.
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Yet as a result of Hegel's famous analysis much discussion of the play has focused on the question of which of the two protagonists has more of "the right" on his side. This approach runs the risk of conceptualizing the protagonists too simply into antithetical "principles" which somehow are, and dialectically must be, ultimately reconciled.

Interpretations

Jones, F., & Vidal, G. (1957). Tragedy with a purpose: Bertolt Brecht's "Antigone". The Tulane Drama Review, 2(1), 39-45.
Bertolt Brecht's adaptation of Sophocles' Antigone, first performed in Switzerland in 1948, presents an interesting combination of ancient and contemporary elements. In this paper I
shall describe and attempt to explain the playwright's handling of his material.
Elwood, W. R. (1972). Hasenclever and Brecht: A critical comparison of two "Antigones". Educational Theatre Journal, 24(1), 47-68.
The Antigone story, timeless in its impact and relevance, has been used by many twentieth century playwrights in an attempt to set an ancient theme in a viable contemporary form.

Literary Criticism

Kirkpatrick, J. (2011). The prudent dissident: Unheroic resistance in Sophocles' Antigone. The Review of Politics, 73(3), 401-424.
Most contemporary political theorists who have interpreted Sophocles' Antigone have focused on the fearsome clash between Antigone and Creon. The relationship between Antigone and her weaker, more cautious sister Ismene has not
garnered similar attention.
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This essay addresses this gap by revisiting the tantalizing possibility that Ismene played a more significant role in resisting Creon than has often been assumed.
Esposito, S. (1996). The changing roles of the sophoclean chorus. Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, 4(1), 85-114.
In early Sophocles the chorus's contribution comes primarily through reflective lyric song (and dance); in late Sophocles, however, it is more dramatic and interactive. This transition in its relation to the actors shows that the chorus occupied an evolving position between its lyric and dramatic functions.