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On Antigone’s Suffering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2021

Ankhi Mukherjee Open the ORCID record for Ankhi Mukherjee [Opens in a new window]
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Abstract

Examining the contestation of interpretations around this work, I argue that the proliferation of exegetical material on Sophocles’s Antigone is related to a noncomprehension of the human motives behind her transgressive action. Did she ever love, and is there any suffering in her piety? If she didn’t love (her brother), could she have suffered? I read the play alongside Kamila Shamsie’s postcolonial rewriting of it in Home Fire to elaborate on the relationship between personal loss and collective (and communal) suffering, particularly as it is focalized in the novel by the figure of a young woman who is both a bereaved twin and a vengeful fury.

Keywords

AntigoneKamila ShamsieplagueIslamophobia
Type
Article
Information
Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry , Volume 8 , Special Issue 2: Special Issue: On Postcolonial Suffering , April 2021 , pp. 214 - 231
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© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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41 See “Islamic State ‘Beatles’ Duo Complain about Losing UK Citizenship,” and “Islamic State ‘Beatles’ Duo: UK ‘will not block death penalty.’”

42 Kamila Shamsie, “Exiled: The Disturbing Story of a Citizen Made UnBritish,” The Guardian, November 17, 2018 (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/17/unbecoming-british-kamila-shamsie-citizens-exile).

43 “Shamima Begum Will Not Be Allowed Here, Bangladesh Says,” BBC News, February 21, 2019 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47312207).

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76 Foley, Female Acts in Greek Tragedy, 197.

77 Shamsie, Home Fire, 5.

78 Sophocles, Antigone, lines 74–76.

79 Sophocles, Antigone, l. 47, l. 92, both spoken by Ismene.

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81 Sophocles, Antigone, lines 572–73.

82 Sophocles, Antigone, lines 888–89.

83 Sophocles, Antigone, lines 559–60.

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93 Sophocles, Antigone, lines 806–09.

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97 Sophocles, Antigone, 802–04.