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Antigonick - Winner of the Criticos Prize

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I first read Antigonick shortly after it was published seven years ago, in May 2012, halfway through the Obama administration.

It is an unhappy reflection on some contemporary literary culture, and on how the art world presents itself, that a translation as radical and eloquent as Carson's can be marred by such an irresponsibly chosen, poorly executed, effectively random series of pictures, and almost no one notices. Some words are translated directly, some are paraphrased, but it’s all still there, yet it’s different. Carson’s protagonist is more audacious and irreverent than her Sophoklean predecessor, defiant to the point of seeming mad. Her testament that “I am born for love not hatred” is a response to his “Enemy is always enemy, alive or dead. You are a person in love with the impossible,’ Ismene admonishes Antigone, pleading with her ‘ don’t cross the line…girls can’t force their way against men.

and i thought that, although their words are incredibly condensed in this version, each character remained intact. Meant to be read in a single sitting but certainly thought provoking far beyond a single reading, Antigonick is another exquisite example of Carson’s inexhaustible creativity and craft. He has been such a boorish strongman—sexist, brutal, rash—and his final realization comes so hard and fast that it feels less earned.

I agree it is problematic to have Antigone say things like "BINGO," despite Carson's clear intention to speak to a contemporary reader. This is less a translation of Sophocles' Antigone than a separate poetic drama inspired by the ancient Greek.I strongly recommend this work to anyone interested in the story of Antigone (I am obsessed with all things Antigone), beautiful language, and stunning books.

Besides writing poetry Bianca is a visual artist, often combining verse and image, for which she was a 2011 NYFA fellow. At the close of Sophokles’s Antigone, Kreon gains what every autocratic ruler lacks: regret and a piercing awareness of what he has failed to see and thus destroyed. The philosopher Hegel thought Antigone was a true tragedy because it dramatised a situation in which both sides were right. Lo que me atrajo de esta reescritura del mito fue precisamente eso: una posibilidad, una mirada nueva, una obra nueva.

It shows how the book fits into the world and speaks to the society of the time, and how translating requires deciding on word choices that must navigate how you feel best respects the work while still acknowledging it as a piece being told in the present but written long in the past. That "nick" is suggestive of a chipped ancient sculpture, a prison, a critical moment – or, as Carson's cast-list suggests, a ghostly presence: Nick is "a mute part [always onstage, he measures things]. For Carson, her uncompromising solutions are little kidnaps in the dark, a trail of softly glowing lamps that mark the way through the centuries and out of the shadows.

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