1. Tragedy Trashed or Translated?
Anouilh’s Antigone
Tragedy Trashed or Translated?
Mark Rothko, “Antigone”

2. clas215
4/17/2017
“Drama” v. Tragedy
“In drama you struggle, because you hope you’re going to survive. It’s utilitarian – sordid. But tragedy is gratuitous. Pointless, irremediable. Fit for a king!” (Chorus, 102)
let’s first try to figure out what the chorus means by that, then evaluate it’s accuracy.
for this course, the best way to do that will be to ask how this is like – but also unlike – aristotelian notions of drama and tragedy.
first, drama. he seems to mean something involving suspense, if by “you” he means other dramatic characters “like us.” i.e., genres in which characters like “us” struggle to prevail over adversity.
later, the chorus will reveal that by drama, they mean an exciting story, almost melodrama, with a clear sense of heroes/heroines and bad guys.
but isn’t this a term we’ve already met with in aristotle? what does drama mean there? it means action, and ari applies to a range of genres, including what he regards as tragedy, narrowly defined. so how is “drama” NOT tragedy here? if nothing else, this shows us you have to define your terms!
clearly referring to plays like the one in which they are appearing here, the chorus characterizes as tragedy gratuitous (i.e., unnecessary or unjustified), pointless, and irremediable (i.e., incapable of repair, correction, being made better).
I think we can take that alongside the Prologue’s characterization of tragedy as a playing out of a heavily scripted sort of fate.
what I’d like to know is how to read that. I want. in other words, to think critically about it. I think, then, we can subject that to a series of questions as follows:
Whom is the Chorus speaking for? themselves and no one else? other characters in the play? author? yet others?
whomever they speak for, is this to be taken at face value? if not at face value, what is meant? do they “mean” some but not all of it? are they being altogether ironic?
are they, in the end, speaking for us or not? do we agree or not? and what is it we agree with?
in answering, you’re going to want to THINK about the IMPLICATIONS OF YOUR ANSWERS. what, for instance, does it imply to mean to say that they play you’re reading, watching, playing in, whatever, is POINTLESS? was this a waste of time for you too read it?
8-Dec-11
Anouilh Antigone
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3. Agenda Anouilh’s Antigone Discussion Introduction Remarks
Anouilh’s Antigone As Tragedy/on Tragedy
8-Dec-11
Anouilh Antigone

4. Anouilh’s Antigone
Introduction Remarks

5. Introduction to Play Setting Dilemmas Prologue (pp. 79 ff.)
clas215
4/17/2017
Introduction to Play
Play, Setting, Theme
Structure – “scene one”
Setting
Dilemmas
frivolity v. purpose
destiny v. defiance
pragmatism v. individualism
Prologue (pp. 79 ff.)
Antigone &. . . (82)
Creon &. . . (97)
Chorus (101)
Debates, recognitions, reversals (102)
Antigone’s choice (128)
Dénouement (134)
CHARACTERS
we see similarities to soph’s ant, but always departures.
ant here seeks not simply to do right by slain bro, but to break away from childhood – she is also deeply jealous of her sister’s looks and popularity.
this last seems a modern feature, but it curiously recalls aspects of euipidean tragedy – its “modernism.”
likewise the nurse – a recurrent figure in euripides (and encountered in seneca and ps-sen).
so too creon. though he’s still paranoid, in his clash with ant, doesn’t present that state-v-family, divine-law-v-human-law dialectic, nor is he really a “classic” grk or roman tyrant – but rather a functionary, at times pititful, at times sinister – seeking to keep the state and his own family from falling apart completely, whether under the pressure of seemingly principled action as in ant’s case, or under that of selfish action, as we’re surprised to see applies to both poly and to eteo. a very 20th cent creon. (anc grk creon was concerned with maintaining his honor and masculinity.) note the political necessity of leaving the body out to rot. note too twisting of the arm thing. implies a kind of twisted character in creon - he's more a gestapo figure than a grand tyrant.
STRUCTURE
in terms of plot, it departs in key ways from soph, and seems in doing so to echo, if anyone, eur:
oed as present in thebes up to about the point of the war
jocasta is still alive
79. stage directions. note attempt to remove time-place situatedness. attempt to create sense of ordinary family. prologue speaks as if not there - or as if others not.
79. Prologue - note movement toward impersonalization of this function, like that of chorus. complete breaking of the dramatic illusion - metatheatrical theater. becoming antigone and living out a preexisting myth. she plays her part b/c of her name. the increasing isolation of the character is the character. a thing between ism and haem. antig overly thoughtful, ism and haem not very.
81. backstory. this is a eur prologue.
101. there is an important chorus – a reflection on the character of tragedy (in part, our focus today).
102. a striking debate scene – very much like an ancient agon – in which creon tries to persuade ant to give up her intransigence. but it also contains certain reversals and quasi-recognitions
creon reveals something of his own mindset and motivations
note as well cr’s attack on the “pride” (hubris?) of the oedipus family – their seemingly exhibitionistic tragicizing.
108. cr assumes ant thinks she'll get away with it. cr: "The pride of Oedipus. You're its living image." hubris theme.
creon reveals the true character of the brothers – selfish and ambitious, mirrors of each other and in death, almost indistinguishable.
ant’s shift from defiance of an unjust order to her disgust with creon’s cynicism ("Nothing is true but what is never said" [121, creon to ant.]) and willingness to compromise.
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Anouilh Antigone
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6. Discussion
Anouilh’s Antigone As Tragedy/on Tragedy

7. Tragedy: Features, Examples
pity towards main character
gets you more involved
pathei-mathos
gives suffering purpose-meaning
death
mystery
serious/sad
gives it more weight
plausibility
similar to serious
internal logic
relatability
more likely to take something away
reversal
related to relatability-pity
supply what you deem features of tragedy
supply brief labeling – word or phrase (e.g., ate-delusion/ruin)
supply example to illustrate
can be drawn from texts read for this class (e.g., ate inducing xerxes to attack greece)
can be drawn from other texts, plays, etc.
non-textual examples (e.g., Kennedy assassination illustrating a profound sense of shared loss)
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Anouilh Antigone

8. Anouilh’s Antigone as Tragic?
How so?
How not?
pathei mathos
who learned what?
ant learning about her brothers
the gender issues as constraining – death as a bid for heroicism
pathei mathos
disagree: she doesn’t change
disagree: more of a drama:
pity party for ant – doesn’t change
how does Anouilh’s antigone score on those benchmarks? how is it, how is it not, tragedy?
8-Dec-11
Anouilh Antigone

9. clas215
4/17/2017
“Drama” v. Tragedy
“In drama you struggle, because you hope you’re going to survive. It’s utilitarian – sordid. But tragedy is gratuitous. Pointless, irremediable. Fit for a king!” (Chorus, 102)
let’s first try to figure out what the chorus means by that, then evaluate it’s accuracy.
8-Dec-11
Anouilh Antigone
bacchae 2

10. What’s That Mean?
8-Dec-11
Anouilh Antigone

11. Is That Right? (explain…)
YES NO
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Anouilh Antigone