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Crossroads in the Black Aegean
Oedipus, Antigone, and Dramas of the African Diaspora
Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson
416 pages
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5 in-text illustrations
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234x156mm
978-0-19-921718-2
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Hardback
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15 November 2007
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New to this edition - Co-ordinates insights from relevant disciplines such as classical reception, postcolonial studies , African studies, and comparative literature.
- Theory and practice are aligned in detailed readings of six plays and one epic poem, and in the development of new theoretical apparatus in classical reception studies.
- Lucid exposition of complex interdisciplinary material, especially in two opening chapters that orient readers to the goals and critical terms of the book.
Crossroads in the Black Aegean is a compendious, timely, and fascinating study of African rewritings of Greek tragedy. It consists of detailed readings of six dramas and one epic poem, from different locations across the African diaspora. Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson ask why the plays of Sophocles' Theban Cycle figure so prominently among the tragedies adapted by dramatists of African descent, and how plays that dilate on the power of the past, in the inexorable curse of Oedipus and the regressive obsession of Antigone, can articulate the postcolonial
moment. Capitalizing on classical reception studies, postcolonial studies, and comparative literature, Crossroads in the Black Aegean co-ordinates theory and theatre. It crucially investigates how the plays engage with the 'Western canon', and shows how they use their self-consciously literary status to assert, ironize, and challenge their own place, and that of the Greek originals, in relation to that tradition. Beyond these oedipal reflexes, the adaptations offer alternative African models of cultural transmission.
Readership: Scholars and students of classics, especially of Greek tragedy; postcolonial studies; African and African-American studies; comparative literature; reception
studies.
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Barbara Goff, Professor of Classics, Department of Classics, University of Reading, and Michael Simpson, Senior Lecturer, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London
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"In its sophisticated readings of six dramas and one epic poem from across the African diaspora, this book is a profound meditation upon the inheritance of civilization and the politics of cultural transmission." - Daniel Orrells, Gurminder K. Bhambra, and Tessa Roynon, African Athena: New Agendas "...immensely rewarding, and frequently groundbreaking...a remarkable book" - Emily Greenwood, New West Indian Guide "make[s] important contributions to conversations about postcolonialism, reception, hybridity, and adaptation" - Erin Mee, Theatre Journal, 2 May 2010 "exemplary work... The authors explore in detail why the particular myths of their title have been taken up in
postcolonial contexts" - Page duBois, Out of Athens
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Introduction: Answering Another Sphinx
1: Intersections and Networks
2: Back to the Motherland: Ola Rotimi's The Gods are Not to Blame
3: Oedipus Rebound: Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth
4: The City on the Edge: Lee Breuer's The Gospel at Colonus
5: The Wine-Dark Caribbean? Kamau Brathwaite's Odale's Choice and Derek Walcott's Omeros
6: No Man's Island: Fugard, Kani, and Ntshona's The Island
7: History Sisters: Femi Osofisan's Tegonni: An African Antigone
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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