University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Embodying the Americas through Antigone and Medea
Abstract
dc:descriptionThis dissertation traces adaptations of the Greek tragedies Antigone and Medea across the American hemisphere, spanning two hundred years of cultural production stretching from the Southern Cone to Canada. By beginning with a history of the Antigone and Medea’s prolific circulation across Latin America, this research situates hemispheric injustices spanning over five hundred years in the context of a longstanding cultural tradition in order to understand the prevalence and pervasiveness of such injustices across time and space. By anchoring this hemispheric study in the Latin American trajectory of Antigone and Medea, the U.S. and Canadian adaptations become part of a broader trend that can be better understood through this contextualization. Following this diachronic study, this dissertation turns to three particular social injustices plaguing the contemporary neoliberal state across the entire American hemisphere: immigration and anti-immigrant sentiment, racial and gender violence and the state’s culpability and complicity in such violence, and women’s bodily autonomy and reproductive rights. Antigone and Medea tell different stories under each of these categories, but both have been called upon across time and space as empowered figures of resistance.
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- Ph.D.
- Level thesis:degree_level
- Dissertation
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- Comparative Literature
- Grantor
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Year dc:date
- 2025
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Casey, Mary Selakovich
- Contributors dc:contributor
-
- Calderwood, Eric
- Barnard, John
- Ledesma, Eduardo
- Tzanetou, Angeliki
Subjects
dc:subject × 6Rights
dc:rights- Statement dc:rights
-
- Copyright 2025 Mary Casey
- Language dc:language
- en, eng
Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Handle dc:identifier
- https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129518