First as Creon, then as Chorus: Slavoj Zizek's Antigone

The article critically evaluates The Three Lives of Antigone, Slavoj Zizek's first dramatic work. Zizek's polemical rewriting of Sophocles' tragedy is examined in the broader perspective of Zizek's philosophy and other Antigones: those of Sophocles, Jean Anouilh, Bertolt Brecht and Dominik Smole. Slavoj Zizek has interpreted Sophocles' Antigone in numerous philosophical works. In his earlier treatises, he mainly gave a cautious summary of Hegel's, Heidegger's and Lacan's theses on Antigone; lately, however, Zizek's attitude to Sophocles' Antigone has grown decidedly negative. The main point in Zizek's critique of Sophocles' tragedy is that his Antigone is not an appropriate symbol of genuine social revolt. Based on this conviction, Zizek contrived his own version of Antigone with an alternative ending in which the choir carries out a revolution and condemns Antigone to death. It is argued in the article that Zizek's dramatic project fails to convince. It is essentially a superficial apology for political violence, which can ultimately only be understood as a veiled defence of the political status quo.