Spring 2008, Week One

 

Antigone Lecture One

 

 

Gail Hart

MHK 424   x4223

gkhart@uci.edu

Office Hours Tu 10:30-12 and by appointment

 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

  

(http://www.malaspina.com/jpg/goethe.jpg )

 

 

Faust  ( http://www.phillipjohnston.com/faust.jpg )

 

 

In the Beginning was the ________

 

 

Introduction:

 

Sophocles 496-406/5 B.C.E.

 

 

(https://eee.uci.edu/programs/humcore/images/Antigone/sophocles.jpg )

 

 

123 plays; only 7 survive

 

Greek Theater and variations on the legends  (Euripides’ Antigone)

 

 

Antigone: What is she doing?

 

Antigones: What are they doing?

 

THE FAMILY-STATE OPPOSITION

 

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

 

 

(http://www.wpclipart.com/famous/philosophy/Georg_Hegel.png )

 

Hegel’s is the most influential reading of Sophocles’ Antigone

 

 

Family Values in Thebes   p.425

 

 

ANTIGONE’S FAMILY:

 

Sisterhood is powerful

 

MINI-THESIS: As relations are blurred within her immediate family, Antigone who is daughter-sister, daughter-granddaughter, sister-niece, and sister-aunt, assumes the role of SISTER to Polynices and  finds a stable footing, based in blood, as she defends her brother’s right of burial.  More on this later

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ANTIGONE’S STATE:

--Antigone is a legend; Thebes exists; Antigone’s state is a monarchy

--It is a well-established state that can identify heroes and traitors. 

--the state commands loyalty and its laws must be obeyed.

But that’s not all…..

Two temporalities:

Sophocles is writing about the Past in his Present

 

Time and civic pride influence the way that the play is pitched to its immediate audience

 

So this is a monarchy that is being made intelligible to citizens of a democracy and it may resonate with some of their concerns. 

 

And it is also a Theban play being presented to a group that considers itself more civilized.

For example, When Creon says (p.96): “Am I to rule this land for others or for myself?” 

How would the audience react?

 

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Back to What is she doing?

 

 

Antigone takes individual action

 

She rejects the model of compliance presented by Ismene:

 

She is an icon of:

1. prioritization of family over state

2. defiance of unjust laws

 

 

Archetype or Icon vs. the Figure in Sophocles’ Play

 

Zidane:

 

(http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/07/10/zidane4_wideweb__470x340,0.jpg )

 

What is he doing?

 

Polis vs. oikos