The Politics of Adaptation: Contemporary African Drama and Greek Tragedy

270 Pages·2013·1.67 MB·English

by  Astrid Van Weyenberg

The Politics of Adaptation
CROSS
Readings in Post/Colonial
ULTURES Literatures and Cultures in English

165

SERIES EDITORS
Gordon Collier Bénédicte Ledent Geoffrey Davis
(Giessen) (Liège) (Aachen)
CO-FOUNDING EDITOR
Hena Maes–Jelinek
The Politics of Adaptation
Contemporary African Drama and Greek Tragedy
Astrid Van Weyenberg
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2013
Cover Image:
Falke Pisano
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO
9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for
documents - Requirements for permanence”.
ISBN: 978-90-420-3700-7
E-Book ISBN: 978-94-012-0957-1
© Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam – New York, NY 2013
Printed in The Netherlands
Instead of seeking out the “classical”
on the snowy and inaccessible heights of Olympus,
we should perhaps be looking for it on earth
and using history to give it a name
and some substance.
— Salvatore Settis

Contents

——————————————————————————— (cid:97)

Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Contemporary African Drama and Greek Tragedy xi
1
AFRICAN ANTIGONES:
“Wherever the call for freedom is heard!” 1
Antigone’s politics – The choice of Antigone – Antigone’s
representation – Performing Antigone – Beyond Antigone? – Antigone’s
futures
2
RITUAL AND REVOLUTION:
Wole Soyinka’s Bacchae, a Yoruba Tragedy 43
(Post)colonial Thebes – Revolutionary Dionysus – Sacrifice and the
mythologization of history – Yoruba and Greek: a complicated
brotherhood – The terms of comparison
3

STAGING TRANSITION:
The Oresteia in Post-Apartheid South Africa 91
Narrating the past –Victims and perpetrators – Theatre of witnessing and
mourning – Justice: definitions and demands – The politics of
reconciliation – The weight of the past
4

MOURNING REMAINS:
Femi Osofisan’s Women of Owu 141
The mourning voice – Memory and promise – Gendered laments –
Re/membering the past – The promise of change – Mourning others

Conclusion 179

Works Cited 185
Index 201

Acknowledgements

——————————————————————————— (cid:97)

I
FIRST OF ALL WISH TO THANK Mieke Bal and Murat Aydemir, under
whose guidance the research for this book first took shape at the Am-
sterdam School for Cultural Analysis of the University of Amsterdam.
I’m grateful to Lorna Hardwick and Irene de Jong for their useful feedback on
my manuscript and to Mark Fleishman and Yael Farber for making the scripts
of their plays available to me. My warm thanks to all the friends and col-
leagues who have supported me throughout the writing process. A special
word of gratitude to my dear friends Paulina Aroch Fugellie, who, more than
any of the books I’ve read, opened my eyes to a wider world, and Falke
Pisano, who was always there for long-distance talks and who designed the
cover image for this book. Finally, I thank my family. My brothers Steven and
Stijn, whom I’m glad to have by my side. My father, for always reminding me
that there are different sides to every story, for challenging me in heated
discussions, for smiling at my idealism, for his thirst for knowledge. My
mother, for always reassuring and never failing me, for seeing the forest
through the trees, for her wisdom and common sense. Bedankt.

Previous versions of Chapter 1 appeared in the Journal of African Literature
and Culture 4, ed. Charles Smith (2007: 59–80); in Migratory Settings, ed.
Murat Aydemir and Alex Rotas (Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex, and Race
19; Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008): 119–37; in Interrogating Antigone in Post-
modern Philosophy and Criticism, ed. Steve Wilmer and Audrone Zukaus-
kaite (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010): 366–78; and in The Returns
of Antigone, ed. Tina Chanter and Sean D. Kirkland (Albany: State University
of New York Press, forthcoming).

A previous version of Chapter 2 appeared in African Athena: New Agendas,
ed. Daniel Orrells, Gurminder Bhambra, and Tessa Roynon (Classical
Presences; Oxford: Oxford University Press: 2011): 32–42.