Beginning with Sophocles’ Antigone, this course will examine different versions of this seminal Greek tragedy–from different countries and across the centuries. We will consider Antigones by, among others, Jean Anouilh, Bertolt Brecht, Anne Carson, Athol Fugard, Tom Paulin, Seamus Heaney, and Kamila Shamsie. We will place special emphasis on Irish appropriations of the play and we will look at some of the more influential readings of Antigone, from George Steiner to Judith Butler. We will be interested in thinking about literature produced in a time of conflict, work which deals with silence and outspokenness in a time of violence.
