Antigone and the Unsayable: A Psychoanalytic Reading

Sophocles wrote over one hundred plays for the Athenian stage, only seven of which survive. Antigone, the most beloved by modern audiences, was written and performed first around 440 B.C.E., i.e., before Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus. Translations into other languages began in the early 16^th century, and the Western world has since produced thousands of exegetic works as well as countless poems and dramatic adaptations. Antigone is the subject of some thirty operas written in the 18th century alone, as well as a ballet, composed by Mikis Theodorakis in 1959. The most controversial rewriting may be that of Jean Anouilh, first performed during the German occupation of Paris. While some hailed its heroine as a resistance fighter, others found the more sympathetic figure to be Creon. In contrast, Bertolt Brecht's adaptation, written during the author's exile in Switzerland, drew unambiguous parallels between Creon and Hitler. Antigone features prominently in Deutschland im Herbst [Germany in Autumn], a film about German terror and resistance in the late 1970s. Caitlin Parrish's The Burials (2016), set in contemporary Seattle, offers a protagonist torn between her beloved fathera pro-gun politician—and her brother, who goes on a high school shooting spree. Antigone in Ferguson (Doerries, 2016) is the name of a project conceived in the wake of Michael Brown's killing by police in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 and involves a reading of the play with gospel choir, followed by audience discussion. A creative standout is Slavoj Zizek's (2016) The Three Lives of Antigone, which begins with the traditional story and offers three possible endings,