International Symposium - “We All Think You’re a Grand Girl” * - The Many Returns of Antigone

(Quote: Ismene in "Anne Carson, Antigonick")

Antigone fights for the right to last rites, she is the guardian of flesh and bones, and, implicitly, of the afterlife. However, by virtue of her name and origin as the daughter of Oedipus, she is also “against birth” and brings an end to the tragic fate of her family by refusing to take on the role of the mother. One of the many mysteries surrounding Sophocles' heroine thus arises in relation to her femininity: in the play she figures primarily as daughter and sister, but is she a woman?

At times of fundamental crisis, be it the collapse of social fabric, the corruption of law, the lack of political representation, or the confrontation of violent state power and resistance movements (the latter often framed as “terrorism”), the figure of Antigone is sure to be invoked in art. We can think of films like I cannibali (dir. Liliana Cavani, 1969) on the “Years of Lead” in Italy and the anthology on the “German Autumn” in the FRG, Deutschland im Herbst (dir. Div., 1978), or Kamila Shamsie's novel Home Fire (2017), on the plight of Muslim migrant families in England.

The symposium aims to examine modern and contemporary discussions and adaptations of the ancient tragedy. Rooted in the theoretical foundations laid out by thinkers like Jacques Lacan, Judith Butler, Alenka Zupančič, and Elissa Marder, we are especially interested in the setting and crossing of gender and family boundaries, and the liminal space of (breaking) the law.

PROGRAM

Friday., February 13, 2026

BLAUER SALON
14:30 Arrival
15:00 - 16:00 Sami Khatib (Karlsruhe), Introduction + Nadine Hartmann (Karlsruhe), “From Tragedy to Tragedy”
16:00 - 17:30 Film Screening

RAUM 112
17:45 - 18:45 Dominiek Hoens (Brussels), “And Once Again, No!”
19:00 - 20:00 Barbara Kuon (Karlsruhe), “Becoming Diamond”

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Saturday, Februray 14, 2026

ROOM 112
10:00 - 11:00 Marc de Kesel (Nijmegen), “Why Antigone is a Beauty: On the Ethical Dimension of the Aesthetic”
11:00 - 12:00 ​​Anđela Samardžić (Zurich), ”Antigone on the Couch: désir and impasse of psychoanalysis”
12:00 - 13:30 Lunch
13:30 - 14:30 Rachel Aumiller (Nijmegen), “Antigone and the Fantasy of Non-Binary Violence”
14:45 - 16:15 Milica Tomić & Jelena Petrović (Belgrade / Graz), “The Case of Antigona: On Political Temporality in Yugoslav Void”

BLAUER SALON (Cinema)
16:45 - 17:45 Hannah Proctor (Glasgow), “First as Tragedy, Next as Melodrama”
18:00 - 20:00 Film Screening

Organized by:
Nadine Hartmann,
Sami Khatib,
Barbara Kuon