Whose Antigone? The Tragic Marginalization of Slavery

The book argues that Sophocles' tragedy Antigone, and indeed the Oedipal cycle as a whole, is as much about slavery, outsiders, and foreigners as it is about sexual difference, incest and murder. Overdetermined by the Hegelian, Freudian, and feminist reception of the play, the critical reception of the West has tended to emphasize the themes of state and family, and sexual difference. The book argues that an adequate understanding of kinship must be extended beyond these standard interpretations. It grounds its analysis in an interdisciplinary framework, drawing on philosophy, literature, psychoanalysis, feminist and race theory