01:30 PM to 02:45 PM MW
Krug Hall 19
Section Information for Spring 2017
Can be used to fulfill the requirement for a course in Continental Philosophy for the Philosophy major.
Cross listed with WMST300-004
Our starting point for this course is Sophocles’ play Antigone, in which Antigone defies the King, Creon, to bury one of her brothers and is sentenced to death as a result. The play raises issues about gender, political power, the individual and the state, kinship structures, ethical responsibility, and desire, as well as life and death (whose lives matter, and whose deaths count).
We will start by examining some influential interpretations of the play by key philosophical thinkers (Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Lacan), and go on to re-interrogate those interpretations through feminist and queer readings of Antigone, drawing on the work of thinkers such as Judith Butler.
We will also consider Tina Chanter's argument that slavery is a structuring theme of the play, yet has been marginalized in dominant western interpretations. Building on this, we will consider the ways in which race has inflected recent re-writings and performances of Antigone, including Òsofisan's African rendering of the play, Tègonni; a version of the play set in Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated; and, more recently, its performance in Ferguson, Missouri: http://www.thecenterforsocialempowerment.com/antigone-in-ferguson/
For further information, please contact the course instructor: Dr Rachel Jones rjones23@gmu.edu
Credits: 1-3
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