Arum Park: Associate Professor, Classics, Department of Religious Studies and Classics, University of Arizona
Wednesday, January 15, 2024,
2:30pm – 3:30pm,
ASA Koffler Great Room and Zoom
When seeking compelling models for dealing with current social issues, contemporary authors, especially women of color, have increasingly turned to classical literature. Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire reimagines Sophocles’ Antigone as a story of a British Muslim family whose religious and ethnic identity becomes a source of conflict. Her adaptation both cleaves to and departs from its Sophoclean model in ways that shed light on the text of Antigone and the themes of self-vs.-other underlying it. In retelling Antigone in this way, Shamsie offers us a fresh lens through which to view it, one that brings out its applicability to modern conflicts. Home Fire can help us reread and rethink Sophocles’ play and illustrates the power of new stories to illuminate old ones.
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