Spotlight Detail

Aris Alexandrou - Antigone Play

Aris Alexandrou wrote his Antigone play in 1951, while he spent time as a political prisoner on the notorious Greek island of Makronisos. Alexandria's Antigone character becomes emblematic for the conflicts of 1940s Greece and for the lack of feasible solutions.

The UCI Department of Classics presents--

DESCENDING INTO A MODERN UNDERWORLD: Aris Alexandrou's Antigone
by Gonda Van Steen (University of Florida)

Tuesday, February 20th @ 11am
Humanities Gateway 1030

Aris Alexandrou wrote his Antigone play in 1951, while he spent time as a political prisoner on the notorious Greek island of Makronisos. Alexandria’s Antigone character becomes emblematic for the conflicts of 1940s Greece and for the lack of feasible solutions. But as an antidote against crisis, she presents and embodies self-critique, independent thinking, and a resilient drive to unmask hypocrisy, no matter in which ideological camp it lurks.

Gonda Van Steen earned a PhD degree in Classics and Hellenic Studies from Princeton University. As the Cassas Chair in Greek Studies at the University of Florida, she teaches courses in ancient and modern Greek language and literature. Her research interests include classical drama, French travelers to Greece and the Ottoman Empire, nineteenth and twentieth-century receptions of the classics, and modern Greek intellectual history. She is currently working on a book manuscript that analyzes theater life, performance, and censorship under the Greek military dictatorship of 1967-1974.