Overview

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.

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9780199217182

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Reviews

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

...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

Author Information

Barbara Goff is Professor of Classics, Department of Classics, University of Reading. Michael Simpson is Senior Lecturer, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London.

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