Unmourned Graves and Screaming Birds
Motif Parallels between Sophocles’ Antigone and Wajdi Mouawad’s Incendies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63872/KTKI3218Keywords:
Sophocles, Antigone, Mouawad, Incendies, motifsAbstract
This article explores the motif parallels between Sophocles’ Antigone and Wajdi Mouawad’s contemporary play Incendies. At the center lies the theme of denied burial and the unmourned dead, which in both works dramatizes the tension between individual duty and communal order. Bird imagery—particularly the cries of gulls and vultures—emerges as a symbolic representation of destruction and inhumanity, bridging ancient and modern tragic worlds. The study argues that Mouawad’s play constitutes a contemporary rewriting of the Antigone-problem, in which the legacy of classical drama intertwines with themes of war, identity, and memory.
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