Astrid Van Weyenberg is a lecturer in Literary Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She completed her dissertation at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis and has published various articles on postcolonial adaptations.

[a] thought-provoking study, which raises important questions, offers complications to previous analyses of the same and similar material, and which seeks to move beyond Eurocentric and postcolonial narratives and arguments to address the plays as works of contemporary Africa inspired by themes from classical Greek muth. That is something worth embracing and celebrating, and only adds to the scholarly conversation on Afrocentric cliassicism, adaptation and reception. K.J. Wetmore, Jr., Acta Classica LVIII (2015)Alert to dangers of self-mythologizing in both European and African contexts, The Politics of Adaptation asks not only how tragedy has been used in the past, but how it might be employed in future, and whether our ongoing engagement with the genre might be changing the very nature of 'tragedy'.Stephe Harrop, New Theatre Quarterly, 31-1 (2015)... an important contribution to the field of adaptation studies. [Van Weyenberg's] book should interest and challenge scholars in a variety of fields beyond adaptation studies, including postcolonialism, classics, and tragedy (given her interest in how African dramatists adapt and rework the genre).Phillip Zapkin, Theatre Journal 66-4 (2014)

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Contemporary African Drama and Greek TragedyAfrican Antigones: “Wherever the call for freedom is heard!” Antigone’s politics – The choice of Antigone – Antigone’s representation – Performing Antigone – Beyond Antigone? – Antigone’s futuresRitual and Revolution: Wole Soyinka’s Bacchae, a Yoruba Tragedy. (Post)colonial Thebes – Revolutionary Dionysus – Sacrifice and the mythologization of history – Yoruba and Greek: a complicated brotherhood – The terms of comparisonStaging Transition: The Oresteia in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Narrating the past –Victims and perpetrators – Theatre of witnessing and mourning – Justice: definitions and demands – The politics of reconciliation – The weight of the pastMourning Remains: Femi Osofisan’s Women of Owu. The mourning voice – Memory and promise – Gendered laments – Re/membering the past – The promise of change – Mourning othersConclusionWorks CitedIndex

Astrid Van Weyenberg is a lecturer in Literary Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She completed her dissertation at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis and has published various articles on postcolonial adaptations.

[a] thought-provoking study, which raises important questions, offers complications to previous analyses of the same and similar material, and which seeks to move beyond Eurocentric and postcolonial narratives and arguments to address the plays as works of contemporary Africa inspired by themes from classical Greek muth. That is something worth embracing and celebrating, and only adds to the scholarly conversation on Afrocentric cliassicism, adaptation and reception. K.J. Wetmore, Jr., Acta Classica LVIII (2015)Alert to dangers of self-mythologizing in both European and African contexts, The Politics of Adaptation asks not only how tragedy has been used in the past, but how it might be employed in future, and whether our ongoing engagement with the genre might be changing the very nature of 'tragedy'.Stephe Harrop, New Theatre Quarterly, 31-1 (2015)... an important contribution to the field of adaptation studies. [Van Weyenberg's] book should interest and challenge scholars in a variety of fields beyond adaptation studies, including postcolonialism, classics, and tragedy (given her interest in how African dramatists adapt and rework the genre).Phillip Zapkin, Theatre Journal 66-4 (2014)

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Contemporary African Drama and Greek TragedyAfrican Antigones: “Wherever the call for freedom is heard!” Antigone’s politics – The choice of Antigone – Antigone’s representation – Performing Antigone – Beyond Antigone? – Antigone’s futuresRitual and Revolution: Wole Soyinka’s Bacchae, a Yoruba Tragedy. (Post)colonial Thebes – Revolutionary Dionysus – Sacrifice and the mythologization of history – Yoruba and Greek: a complicated brotherhood – The terms of comparisonStaging Transition: The Oresteia in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Narrating the past –Victims and perpetrators – Theatre of witnessing and mourning – Justice: definitions and demands – The politics of reconciliation – The weight of the pastMourning Remains: Femi Osofisan’s Women of Owu. The mourning voice – Memory and promise – Gendered laments – Re/membering the past – The promise of change – Mourning othersConclusionWorks CitedIndex

Astrid Van Weyenberg is a lecturer in Literary Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She completed her dissertation at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis and has published various articles on postcolonial adaptations.

[a] thought-provoking study, which raises important questions, offers complications to previous analyses of the same and similar material, and which seeks to move beyond Eurocentric and postcolonial narratives and arguments to address the plays as works of contemporary Africa inspired by themes from classical Greek muth. That is something worth embracing and celebrating, and only adds to the scholarly conversation on Afrocentric cliassicism, adaptation and reception. K.J. Wetmore, Jr., Acta Classica LVIII (2015)Alert to dangers of self-mythologizing in both European and African contexts, The Politics of Adaptation asks not only how tragedy has been used in the past, but how it might be employed in future, and whether our ongoing engagement with the genre might be changing the very nature of 'tragedy'.Stephe Harrop, New Theatre Quarterly, 31-1 (2015)... an important contribution to the field of adaptation studies. [Van Weyenberg's] book should interest and challenge scholars in a variety of fields beyond adaptation studies, including postcolonialism, classics, and tragedy (given her interest in how African dramatists adapt and rework the genre).Phillip Zapkin, Theatre Journal 66-4 (2014)

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Contemporary African Drama and Greek TragedyAfrican Antigones: “Wherever the call for freedom is heard!” Antigone’s politics – The choice of Antigone – Antigone’s representation – Performing Antigone – Beyond Antigone? – Antigone’s futuresRitual and Revolution: Wole Soyinka’s Bacchae, a Yoruba Tragedy. (Post)colonial Thebes – Revolutionary Dionysus – Sacrifice and the mythologization of history – Yoruba and Greek: a complicated brotherhood – The terms of comparisonStaging Transition: The Oresteia in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Narrating the past –Victims and perpetrators – Theatre of witnessing and mourning – Justice: definitions and demands – The politics of reconciliation – The weight of the pastMourning Remains: Femi Osofisan’s Women of Owu. The mourning voice – Memory and promise – Gendered laments – Re/membering the past – The promise of change – Mourning othersConclusionWorks CitedIndex