Let Them Rot: Antigone's Parallax

Sophocles' Antigone is a central text of Western thought and culture, and Alenka Zupančič's Let Them Rot offers a provocative and accessible journey to its heart. The book explores the figure of Antigone and why she keeps resurfacing as a central text, focusing on three obsessions: violence, funerary rites, and Antigone's statement that she would let her children rot if they were unburied. Zupančič argues that Antigone's exclusivist claim, which she uses to describe the unwritten law she follows, tallies with her universal appeal and compelling power. She also explores the question of what this particular family's misfortune shares with the general condition of humanity, forcing us to confront the seemingly self-evident question: What is incest?

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 96 pages
Publication date: 17 January 2023
Publisher: Fordham University Press

A provocative and highly accessible journey to the heart of Sophocles' Antigone, this book elucidates why it keeps resurfacing as a central text of Western thought and culture. There is probably no classical text that has inspired more interpretation, critical attention, and creative response than Antigone. The general perspective from which the book is written could be summarized with this simple question: What is it about the figure of Antigone that keeps haunting us? Why do all these readings and rewritings keep emerging? To what kind of always contemporary contradiction does the need, the urge to reread and reimagine Antigone—in all kinds of contexts and languages—correspond? As key anchor points of this general interrogation, three particular obsessions have driven the author's thinking and writing about Antigone. First is the issue of violence. The violence in Antigone is the opposite of graphic as we have come to know it in movies and the media; rather, it is sharp and piercing, it goes straight to the bone. It is the violence of language, the violence of principles, the violence of desire, the violence of subjectivity. Then there is the issue of funerary rites and their role in appeasing the specific undeadness that seems to be the other side of human life, its irreducible undercurrent that death alone cannot end and put to rest. This issue prompted the author to look at the relationship between language, sexuality, death, and second death. The third issue, which constitutes the focal point of the book, is Antigone's statement that if it were her children or husband lying unburied out there, she would let them rot and not take it upon herself to defy the decree of the state. The author asks, how does this exclusivist, singularizing claim resonate with our contemporary experience of the undead? How does it speak to the ways in which we are all implicated in the violence of the world? The book explores these questions through a close reading of the play, drawing on a wide range of critical and theoretical perspectives. It also includes a series of original essays that offer fresh insights into the play's themes and resonances. Throughout the book, the author's voice is clear and engaging, making it accessible to a wide range of readers. Whether you are a student of literature, a scholar of philosophy, or simply someone who enjoys reading, Antigone: A Provocative Journey to the Heart of Sophocles will leave you with a deeper understanding of this timeless classic and its enduring relevance to our world.
Sophocles' Antigone is a provocative and highly accessible journey to the heart of Western thought and culture. It has inspired more interpretation, critical attention, and creative response than any other classical text. The book's general perspective is to explore why the figure of Antigone keeps haunting us and why all these readings and rewritings keep emerging. Three particular obsessions have driven the author's thinking and writing about Antigone: violence, funerary rites, and Antigone's statement that she would let her children or husband rot if they were unburied. The book explores these issues through a close reading of the play, drawing on a wide range of critical and theoretical perspectives. It also includes a series of original essays that offer fresh insights into the play's themes and resonances. The author's voice is clear and engaging, making it accessible to a wide range of readers. Whether you are a student of literature, a scholar of philosophy, or simply someone who enjoys reading, Antigone: A Provocative Journey to the Heart of Sophocles will leave you with a deeper understanding of this timeless classic and its enduring relevance to our world.

Weight: 154g
Dimension: 139 x 217 x 10 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781531501044