Rewriting Antigone, rethinking the political subject

Abstract

Taking Sophocles’ Antigone as its focal point, this dissertation aims to analyse how the tragedy is interpreted in modern philosophy and psychoanalytical theory. Through close reading of the works of G.W.F. Hegel, Jacques Lacan, Luce Irigaray, and Judith Butler, the dissertation addresses how Hegelian and post-Hegelian thought rewrites Antigone for modernity and how this affects the conceptualization of Antigone as a political subject in the modern adaptations of the play. The main argument is that philosophical works on Antigone not only read the play in a particular way, but in their interpretation, they also reproduce, and in this sense, rewrite the play to respond to the philosophical questions of their time. These rewritings of Antigone not only shape the modern reception of the play, but also raise theoretical issues that contribute to our understanding of the modern subject situated at the crossroads of ethics and politics. I argue that the Hegelian and Lacanian ethical readings of Antigone presuppose political subjecthood without openly acknowledging it, whereas feminist interpretations offered by Irigaray and Butler propose to read the play from the sphere of politics making space for Antigone to emerge as a political subject. Finally, I turn to theories of sovereignty to discuss the political implications of Antigone’s subjecthood. Consequently, through an analysis of the modern rewritings of Antigone, the dissertation intends to provide insight into the notion of the modern political subject.