Psychoanalysing Antigone
Psychoanalysing Antigone
This chapter tries both to take stock of the current state of psychoanalytic criticism of Greek tragedy in general, and to focus on Antigone in particular as an especially puzzling but rewarding case study. The chapter begins by briefly outlining the particular problems and questions raised by the character Antigone as a psychological ‘case’. Then, some of the goals, procedures, liabilities, and potential payoff of psychoanalytic criticism of literature in general and Greek stage drama in particular are surveyed, before a closer examination of Sophocles' text with the help of some of these procedures, in the hope of teasing out some answers to the questions raised and revealing more clearly the psychological dynamics of this disturbing and influential play.
Keywords: Antigone, Greek tragedy, incest, psychoanalysis, family, desire, identification
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