Antigone’s Dilemma: Citizenship and Resistance in the Contemporary World (Honors Course)

CATALOG DESCRIPTION:

This course uses Sophocles’ Antigone and its multiple readings, adaptations, and enactments, as springboard in order to explore the problematic of communal belonging and individuality, especially in its contemporary manifestations. Antigone, an emblematic figure of civil disobedience, offers us a way to reflect on the underpinnings of citizenship, resistance, and ethical responsibility. The course invites an interdisciplinary engagement with Antigone, one that brings together philosophy, literary theory, aesthetics, political theory, and gender studies. Readings and material will be drawn from the humanities and art.

RATIONALE:

Depicting the paradigmatic conflict between the two main characters, Antigone and Creon, Sophocles’ tragedy has initiated a long genealogy of philosophical and literary treatments of key themes: the interdependence of self and other, the problematic relationship between law and ethics, state and kinship, as well as the relation between the political condition and the individual psychic struggle. Using Antigone as a starting point, the course invites exploration of diverse, contingent, and conflicting perceptions of “right,” “just” and “lawful,” as well as of the intersections of gender, politics, and ethics. It invites students to confront the perennial question of who belongs to the polis and who does not; who is included and at what price, and to relate such questions to contemporary politics of the democratic polity.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

1. Demonstrate understanding of key concepts in political philosophy and gender theory, such as citizenship, difference, sovereignty, law, democracy, moral accountability, freedom, and resistance;

2. Critically evaluate aesthetic elements in representations and reenactments of the Antigone myth in contemporary theater and art;

3. Discuss questions of gender, race and class as they emerge in the ancient tragedy and its contemporary re-enactments, relating these topics to contemporary political and philosophical debates;

4. Critically evaluate transcultural perspectives on inclusion/exclusion, individuality, belonging, and resistance.

METHOD OF TEACHING AND LEARNING:

In congruence with the teaching and learning strategy of the college, the following tools are used:

• Textual analysis, class discussion, and group work during class meetings
• Film and performance screenings
• Active student-centered teaching approach
• Individual student presentations
• Extensive instructor feedback on presentations and essays
• Individualized assistance during office hours for additional reading, presentations and essays
• Additional educational material placed on reserve in the library