Antigone Uninterrupted: Antigone's Biographical Tale of Learning from Tragic Counsel

Wendy Bustamante

oct 2020 · Vernon Press

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This book argues that while current scholarship on Antigone tends to celebrate work that takes Antigone out of her classical roots and puts her into contemporary frameworks, we do not need to place her in a new context and setting to appreciate what her insights offer. We can simply listen to her whole story and learn from what she learns from her father, Oedipus.

While other works boldly claim to be progressively moving beyond the scope of tragic themes of mortality, Antigone Uninterrupted demonstrates that reading the Theban Plays in the order of Antigone’s biography (so to speak) expands our understanding of what Antigone could tell us about contemporary issues. This demonstration involves Hegel’s discussion of Antigone in his Phenomenology of Spirit, responses to Hegel on this point, and the author’s assessment that Antigone makes arguments in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus that ought to be illuminated in contemporary scholarship. This book examines the three Theban Plays (Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone) in the order by which Antigone’s story is a continuous development of character and age, a unique approach for reasons the author identifies, but one she argues would be beneficial to future scholarship.

Providing illuminating readings of both Sophocles’ tragedies and some key modern interpretations of the plays, this book holds broad appeal for those interested in subjects such as political science, gender theory, queer theory, literary criticism, theology, and sociology, to name a few.

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Wendy Bustamante earned her PhD in Philosophy from Texas A&M University, with a particular interest in Ancient Philosophy, Continental Philosophy (especially Existentialist Philosophy), and Philosophy of Literature. Upon graduation, Dr Bustamante also earned an additional MA in English, for which she wrote a creative thesis, and continues to write creative fiction inspired by Attic tragedy alongside her scholarship on Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’.