THE TRAGEDY OF ANTIGONE AS SUBVERSION:
AN ANALYSIS OF MORAL SEXISM FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT AND MARÍA ZAMBRANO
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7443/problemata.v17i1.78700Keywords:
Antigone, subversion, moral sexism, María Zambrano, Mary WollstonecraftAbstract
Sophocles' tragedy Antigone transcends its original context as an act of radical subversion against sexism. This text examines civil disobedience from the perspectives of Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) and María Zambrano (1904-1991). In Zambrano's view, in *La tumba de Antígona* (1967), the heroine is reimagined through "poetic reason." In this reading, Antigone subverts the order of the polis by placing moral duty above state law. Mary Wollstonecraft, in *A Vindication of the Rights of Woman* (1792), offers tools to critique the bourgeois morality that positions women as inferior beings. Antigone's struggle against Creon's decree mirrors, in our view, Wollstonecraft's refusal to accept the sexist morality that treats women as beings of "perpetual childhood." Antigone's action directly challenges the exclusion of women from the political and ethical sphere. Both thinkers, through our reading, identify in Antigone a moral subversion that breaks with the shackles of imposed obedience. While Zambrano celebrates a poetic liberation that recreates female identity at the edge of life, Wollstonecraft would see in the heroine's act the affirmation of rationality and women's rights.
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