The story of Antigone plays out in the modern world, in this Man Booker-longlisted exploration of the clash between society, family and religious faith In Sophocles’s play _Antigone_ a teenage girl is forced to choose between obeying the law of the land (her uncle, the king of Thebes, has forbidden the burial of a traitor) and religious law (the traitor is Antigone’s brother, Polynices, who has declared war on his city, and killed his own brother, Eteocles, along the way). Antigone’s “good” brother gets a funeral, the “bad” one is left to rot. Leaving a relative unburied is profoundly taboo in ancient Greece, so Antigone must decide: does she obey her conscience and bury Polynices – the punishment for which is the death penalty – or does she obey the law and leave her brother to be picked apart by dogs? Related: Kamila Shamsie: let’s have a year of publishing only women – a provocation Continue reading...
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