Andres Carrete, University of Texas at Austin
This presentation proposes a theoretical model for engaging with classical receptions which understands heritage as a living and dynamic cultural act. By exploring Sophocles’ Antigone and its multiple Mexican adaptations, it interrogates the specifically Mexican practice of adapting the Antigone and theorizes a reciprocal relation between the receiving communities and the play’s development as a marked cultural signifier of resistance in the country. The conception of heritage here used is borrowed from Laurajane Smith, who theorizes heritage as a concern of the living (i.e., led and preserved by a community) cast in opposition to hegemonic discourses of preservation and antiquity (Smith 2006). Discussed as the Authorized Heritage Discourse (AHD), this hegemonic impulse uses “the past” to project a specific image of a nation, its history, and its ideologies in a manner often detached from the communal realities of a society. By expanding the parameters of Smith’s concepts beyond materiality, this presentation will examine the reception of Sophocles’ Antigone in Mexico as a cultural site. In so doing, it will present a model for engaging with classical receptions that is contingent upon the cultural realities of receiving communities.
To demonstrate the utility of this model, I briefly characterize the history of Antigone in Mexico as one that begins as a product of the Mexican AHD but quickly subverts its positioning by turning its discursive prowess in favor of the people – those participating and upholding heritage (See Barrenechea 2015 and Pianacci 2015 for discussions of Antigone’s early presence in Mexican theaters). By virtue of its multiple reimaginings in Mexican culture, this presentation argues that Mexico’s Antigones develop as uniquely Mexican interventions to their country’s authorized cultural discourse, challenging national mythmaking, social and gender roles, as well as societal failings and cultural apathies.
This project is informed by the corpus of Antigone adaptations of Mexico and Latin America (a topic explored in works such as Fradinger 2022 & 2014, Henao Castro 2022, Pianacci 2015, Mee & Foley 2011, and Bosch 1999). However, the proposed model is exemplified primarily through a short overview of Perla de la Rosa’s Antígona: Las voces que incendian el desierto (2004), or Antigone: The Voices that Set Ablaze the Desert in English. This Northern Mexican adaptation of the ancient tragedy represents a shift in the use and community resonance of Antigone in contemporary Mexico. Starting with De la Rosa’s play, the Antigones of Mexico appear more concerned with critiquing localized community politics and trend towards resisting cultural narratives and behaviors in unambiguous terms. The positioning represented by this Antigone makes it an especially fertile ground for discussion. Through a direct engagement with this play, this presentation will present Antigone’s intervention in the cultural and heritage discourse of the country, thereby modeling an engagement with Mexican reception that is a clear challenger of the AHD’s impositions and an important component of Mexican heritage in its own right. This mode of engagement should incite discussions about cultural narratives surrounding Antigone and its history of reception in diverse regional contexts.