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Antigone's Claim

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Me: Hello Dr. Butler, I would like to interview you on your views towards Antigione for my research into classical representations of queer individuals. Butler: Of course. If you should require any additional information about my views on this matter you can likely find my opinion in my book Antigone’s Claim. Me: Thank you so much for your time. Well if you don’t mind would you explain how if at all your view of performativity attaches to Antigone herself? Butler: In my opinion Antigone models the performativity of queer perfectly. She not only acts in opposition to the head of society, but her existence exists in opposition to society as a whole. Her existence is so oppositional in fact that even she recognizes her familial origins as not only cursed but having the ability to curse those related to it. Like I have stated in my article Criticaly Queer, "The resignification of norms is thus a function of their inefficacy, and so the question of subversion, of working the weakness in the norm, becomes a matter of inhabiting the practices of its re-articulation.” This relates back to the …show more content…

So her religion is what is truly queer-like. Would that therefore make all of Hades followers Queer? Or all non-worshipers of Zeus queer? Butler: Potentially. If being queer is but one part that constitutes the self then it is possible for something to be queer that is not a person or individual. Under these rules, it could be that Antigione’s religious views are what are truly queer. Her religious views exist in exact opposition to the dominant discourses around her. As I stated in my article Critically Queer, “The hyperbolic conformity to the command can reveal the hyperbolic status of the norm itself, indeed, can become the cultural sign by which that cultural imperative might become legible.” Me: Thank you Dr. Butler for this very insightful interview. I will be sure to send you a transcript of this for your own records. Have a wonderful

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