EBOOK Crossroads in the Black Aegean:Oedipus, Antigone, and Dramas of the African Diaspora

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 curseof 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.