Instructions for Essay Two!
Antigone is a very old play. It has been performed countless times, all over the world, during the two thousand, four hundred years of its existence. New performances of Antigone will often relate the play to events that are taking place at the time it is performed (such as war, sexism, racism, and so on), so that, even though the play remains (basically) the same, it will be adapted in different ways to make a point about what is happening in the audience’s world.
In your research essay, you will discuss one adaptation of Antigone. Your thesis paragraph should introduce the adaptation. Your second paragraph should explain who directed that adaptation, as well as where and when it was performed, and who acted in it. The third paragraph should discuss the specific historical events or circumstances (war, sexism, etc) that the adaptors were trying to relate to the play. The fourth paragraph should discuss how the play was changed to make it relate more clearly to those historical events or circumstances. Your concluding paragraph should sum up your analysis, and consider at least one way Antigone could be related to something happening in the world around us right now.
To write this essay, you will have to do some research. There are three sources that you can use. These readings all describe different adaptations of the play. You will need to select one adaptation to write about. Make sure to quote from at least one of these three readings in your essay, and be sure to cite your quotes correctly. Don’t forget to list your sources on a works cited page at the end of the essay. The rough draft is due on Blackboard at 5 PM on 10/20, and must be at least 600 words long.
Here are the three sources. You only need to use one of them.
a) An article by Robert Gordon, titled: “Fugard, Kani, Ntshona’s The Island: Antigone as South African Drama” in the journal called Comparative Drama.
b) “Antigone and Politics in the Nineteenth Century: The Boston 1890 Antigone.” This is Part One of Chapter Three (pages 125-132) in a book by Helene Foley, called Re-Imagining Greek Tragedy on the American Stage.
c) “‘Me’ as in ‘Metre:’ On Translating Antigone,” by Seamus Heaney. This is chapter eight in a book called Rebel Women: Staging Ancient Greek Drama Today, edited by John Dillon and Stephen Wilmer.
The links above should take you an Hostos Library search page with an entry for the reading, along with a list of links under the heading “View Online.” Following any of those links should take you to a free, online version of the reading.
