Sophocles' Antigone and the Democratic Voice
Sophocles' Antigone and the Democratic Voice
This chapter analyses the performative status of Creon's interdiction against the burial of Polyneices by tracing its trajectory throughout the play. It argues that although the interdiction seems to have institutional force, it is in reality a deformed speech act, since Creon does not possess the authority to make law. An Athenian audience of citizens would recognize that the democratic voice, necessary for the creation of law, has been silenced. Antigone offers a contesting speech when she announces that she will bury her brother; in her exchange with Creon she functions as an exemplar of democratic free speech. Antigone, however, does not possess the authority to say that she will bury her brother since this was not a role performed by women in fifth‐century Athens. Nonetheless she activates a shadow democracy whose critique of the interdiction in the streets of Thebes resembles the informal discursive processes of the Athenian legislature.
Keywords: Athenian law, speech acts, democracy, gossip, gender and authority
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