2004
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Volume 58, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 0165-8204
  • E-ISSN: 2667-1573

Abstract

Abstract

Few female characters in Greek mythology are as widely admired as Sophocles’ Antigone, the daughter of Jocasta and Oedipus who was willing to defy the authority of the ruler of Thebes, her uncle Kreon, and to sacrifice her life so that her brother Polyneikes could be buried. In this contribution, I first contrast Antigone’s character and actions with those of similar tragic in order to define what makes her so admirable. I then place some recent adaptations of the Antigone myth in the context of the recent wave of retellings from a ‘new’ female perspective. How can one describe a character who is already so prominent as a heroine once more ‘from a new perspective’? The answer is sought in a discussion of the antithesis Antigone versus Ismene, using two recent stage monologues and a novel: José Watanabe’s (2001), Lot Vekemans’ (2005) and Nathalie Haynes’ (2017).

© Jacqueline Klooster
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/content/journals/10.5117/LAM2025.1.005.KLOO
2025-02-01
2025-04-02
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Keyword(s): Antigone; Ismene; reception; retellings; Sophocles

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