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Episode 5: Antigone
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In this episode, we discuss Sophocles’ Antigone, from classical Athens to 21st-century Mexico. Dr. Andrés Carrete (Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University) joins Naomi to explore different frameworks, ancient and modern, for understanding this incredibly influential play. Then they talk to two Mexican playwrights, David Gaitán and Perla de la Rosa, who have both produced their own versions of Antigone as forms of political theater.
Guests:
Andrés Carrete is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies and Academic Director for the Center’s “Scholars in Training” program. His research interests span the reception of classics in Central and Latin America, Greek tragedy, inclusive pedagogy, translation theory, ethics, and political philosophy. His publications include a monograph entitled Antigone a la Mexicana: A Discourse of Heritage, Resistance, and Reception (2026).
David Gaitán is an award-winning playwright, director, actor, and teacher. He is the co-founder of two theater companies in Mexico: Un Pino en la Vía Láctea and Ocho Metros Cúbicos A.C. His plays, which have been performed all over the world, include Antígona (2016), Enemigo del pueblo (2018), Edipo: Nadie es ateo (2019), and, more recently, El mar es un pixel (2025) and Azul bosquez (2025). You can read an English translation of Antígona here.
Perla de la Rosa is an award-winning actress, director, playwright, and educator. As an actress, she is known for her work across Mexican theater, television, and film. Her plays include Antígona: las voces que incendian el desierto (2004), El enemigo (2011), King Tiger (2019), and Un grito en el desierto (2021). She is the recipient of the Juan Ruiz de Alarcón National Dramaturgy Prize and the Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda Medal of Cultural Merit.
You can watch Naomi and Andrés’ interview with David Gaitán here:
Recommended Translations:
Carson, A. 2022. Sophokles: Antigone. London and New York: Bloomsbury.
Fagles, R. 1982. Sophocles: The Three Theban Plays. New York: Penguin. (Useful introduction and notes by B. Knox.)
Grene, D. and R. Lattimore. 2013. Sophocles I: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus. 3rd edition, ed. M. Griffith and G. W. Most. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lefkowitz, M. and J. Romm, ed. 2016. The Greek Plays. New York: Penguin Random House. (Antigone translation by F. Nisetich.)
Rayor, D. 2012. Sophocles’ Antigone: A New Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Some Further Reading:
Butler, J. 2000. Antigone’s Claim: Kinship Between Life and Death. New York: Columbia University Press.
Cairns, D. 2016. Sophocles: Antigone. Bloomsbury Companions to Greek and Roman Tragedy. London and New York: Bloomsbury.
Carrete, A. 2026. Antigone a la Mexicana: A Discourse of Heritage, Resistance, and Reception. London and New York: Routledge.
Honig, B. 2013. Antigone, Interrupted. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lacan, J. 1997. Book VII. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis 1959–1960. New York.
Mee, E.B. and H. P. Foley, eds. 2011. Antigone on the Contemporary Stage. Oxford:
Söderbäck, F., ed. 2010. Feminist Interpretations of Antigone. Albany: SUNY Press. (Includes essays by L. Irigaray, J. Butler, and J. Kristeva.)
Steiner, G. 1984. Antigones: How the Antigone Legend Has Endured in Western Literature, Art, and Thought. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Žižek, S. 1989. The Sublime Object of Ideology. London: Verso Books.