Antigona by Jose Watanabe: A Bilingual Edition with Critical Essays

This book brings to English readers, in its entirety for the first time, a translation of Jose Watanabe’s Antigona, accompanied by the original Spanish text and critical essays.

The lack of availability in English has resulted in the absence of Antigona from important Anglophone studies devoted specifically to the reception of ancient Greek tragedy in the Americas. Perez Diaz’s translation fills this gap. The introduction provides the performative, political, and historical contexts in which the text was written in collaboration with the actress Teresa Ralli, from the Peruvian theater group Yuyachkani, who also originally performed it. Following the bilingual text, a critical essay provides an analysis of textual aspects of Antigona that have been disregarded, situating it in relation to Sophocles’ Antigone and in conversation with relevant moments of the vast traditions of reception of the Greek tragedy. An appendix briefly surveys some notable productions of the play throughout Latin America.

This comprehensive volume provides an invaluable resource for readers interested in Jose Watanabe’s work, students and scholars working on classical reception and Latin American literature and theatre, as well as theatre practitioners.