Showing papers on "Emancipation published in 2008"

Critical Republicanism: The Hijab Controversy and Political Philosophy

Abstract: © Cecile Laborde 2008. All rights reserved. This book conducts the first comprehensive philosophical analysis of the hijab controversy in France, this book also conducts a dialogue between contemporary Anglo-American and French political theory and defends a progressive republican solution to so-called multicultural conflicts in contemporary societies. It critically assesses the official republican philosophy of laicite which purported to justify the 2004 ban on religious signs in schools. Laicite is shown to encompass a comprehensive theory of republican citizenship, centered on three ideals: equality (secular neutrality of the public sphere), liberty (individual autonomy and emancipation), and fraternity (civic loyalty to the community of citizens). Challenging official interpretations of laicite, the book then puts forward a critical republicanism which does not support the hijab ban, yet upholds a revised interpretation of three central republican commitments: secularism, non-domination and civic solidarity. Thus, it articulates a version of secularism which squarely addresses the problem of status quo bias-the fact that Western societies are historically not neutral towards all religions. It also defends a vision of female emancipation which rejects the coercive paternalism inherent in the regulation of religious dress, yet does not leave individuals unaided in the face of religious and secular, patriarchal and ethnocentric domination. Finally, the book outlines a theory of immigrant integration which places the burden of civic integration on basic socio-economic and political institutions, rather than on citizens themselves. This book examines the management of religious and cultural pluralism, centred on the pursuit of the progressive ideal of non-domination in existing, non-ideal societies.

The Myth of the “Weak” American State

Abstract: THE AMERICAN PRESENT IS AT ODDS with representations of the American past. The American present witnesses the steady aggrandizement of executive, administrative, emergency, penal, military, and war powers as contemporary commentators such as Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, and Giorgio Agamben contemplate the contours of American hegemony and superpower in a new era of empire.1 The global impact of present American politics, political economy, and foreign policy is obvious to any casual observer of current affairs. The story of the American past, on the other hand, continues to be told in narratives that seem to be heading off somewhere else. In place of the growth of power, the history that America most frequently tells itself highlights a story of relative powerlessness-a usually benign tale of legal-political self-abnegation, emphasizing constitutional restraints such as federalism, checks and balances, the separation of powers, limited government, the rule of law, and laissezfaire. When presented more positively, American history is usually framed as a quest for freedom-the struggle for political liberty, emancipation from bondage, the rise of civil, economic, and social rights. Property, contract, and freedom of speech, press, and association form the constitutional backbone of a free market, a vigorous civil society, and a democratic polity-hallmarks of a free people. Oddly, key elements of this tale are kept alive in both older political histories of the liberal tradition in America and newer histories highlighting the rights and agency of particular cultural communities. Coming to terms with the historical rise of the mechanisms of legal, political, economic, corporate, and technological power that currently shape so much of the globe is thus a more difficult task than it should be. A true philosophical and political history of the American present continues to elude historians.2

Tolerance as an Ideological Category

Abstract: The Culturalization of Politics Why are so many problems today perceived as problems of intolerance, not as problems of inequality, exploitation, injustice? Why is the proposed remedy tolerance, not emancipation, political struggle, even armed struggle? The immediate answer is the liberal multiculturalist’s basic ideological operation: the culturalization of politics. Political differences, differences conditioned by political inequality, economic exploitation, and so on, are naturalized and neutralized into cultural differences, different ways of life, which are something given, something that cannot be overcome, but must be merely tolerated. To this, of course, one should answer in Benjaminian terms: from culturalization of politics to politicization of culture. The cause of this culturalization is the retreat and failure of direct political solutions (the welfare state, socialist projects, and so on). Tolerance is their postpolitical ersatz.

The Problem of Emancipation: The Caribbean Roots of the American Civil War

Abstract: A most persuasive work that repositions the American debates over emancipation where they clearly belong, in a broader Anglo-Atlantic context."" -- Reviews in History While many historians look to internal conflict alone to explain the onset of the American Civil War, in The Problem of Emancipation, Edward Bartlett Rugemer places the origins of the war in a transatlantic context. Addressing a huge gap in the historiography of the antebellum United States, he explores the impact of Britain's abolition of slavery in 1834 on the coming of the war and reveals the strong influence of Britain's old Atlantic empire on the United States' politics. He demonstrates how American slaveholders and abolitionists alike borrowed from the antislavery movement developing on the transatlantic stage to fashion contradictory portrayals of abolition that became central to the arguments for and against American slavery. Richly researched and skillfully argued, The Problem of Emancipation explores a long-neglected aspect of American slavery and the history of the Atlantic World and bridges a gap in our understanding of the American Civil War. ""Most discussions about the roots of the American Civil War seldom stray beyond the nation's borders, but Rugemer makes a persuasive case for why that should change."" -- Charleston (SC) Post and Courier ""A tremendous contribution to the greatest issue and ongoing controversy in pre--twentieth-century American historiography: the causes of the American Civil War. I was quite unprepared for Rugemer's crucial discoveries as he studied the way dozens of southern and northern newspapers responded to the British West Indian slave insurrections, to the British act of emancipation, and to the consequences of this so-called Mighty Experiment. Few historians have shown such sophistication in analysing the rapidly changing pre--Civil War media and the shifts in public opinion."" -- David Brion Davis, author of Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World

Goodness is Elsewhere: The Rule of European Difference

Abstract: Reflecting on European colonialism in 1950 - at a time when discussions about what we now know as the European Union emerged in western Europe, Aime Cesaire wrote, . . . Europe is morally, spiritually indefensible. This idea is fairly commonplace in much of the post-colonial world and it has some purchase within certain academic and intellectual circles elsewhere. And yet, in the process of denouncing the widely noted presence of racism in Hungary, thirty-six leading Hungarian intellectuals have, in a recent public document, felt compelled to thank France, and through France, a generic, trans-historical notion of Europe, for what they saw as the latter's profound, longue-duree goodness. It is partly my concern for the economic hardship, political marginality, cultural discrimination, and social exclusion faced by the Romanies of eastern Europe and partly the precision with which the Letter articulates the topos of west European moral superiority - a central pattern of European identity discourse - that prompts me to raise the following initial questions: How is it possible to denounce racism by referring to Europe, especially western Europe, the main historic source and promoter of racism as we know it today? What purpose does the genre of the open letter serve and how does it function? How does the signatories' implicit project of geopolitical self-positioning relate to the theme of the West as an object to be emulated, long dominant in the modern history of east-central European ideas of emancipation?

American Mediterranean: Southern Slaveholders in the Age of Emancipation

Abstract: * List of Illustrations * Introduction *1. The American Mediterranean *2. The White Republic of the Tropics *3. The Promise of Exile *4. The Labor Problem *5. Latitudes and Longitudes * Epilogue * Notes * Acknowledgments * Index

Universal Emancipation: The Haitian Revolution and the Radical Enlightenment

Abstract: Unlike the American and French Revolutions, the Haitian Revolution was the first in a modern state to implement human rights universally and unconditionally. Going well beyond the selective emancipation of white adult male property owners, the Haitian Revolution is of vital importance, Nick Nesbitt argues, in thinking today about the urgent problems of social justice, human rights, imperialism, torture, and, above all, human freedom.Combining archival research, political philosophy, and intellectual history, Nesbitt explores this fundamental event of modern history - the invention of universal emancipation - both in the context of the Age of Enlightenment (Spinoza, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel) and in relation to certain key figures (Ranciere, Laclau, Habermas) and trends (such as the turn to ethics, human rights, and universalism) in contemporary political philosophy. In doing so, he elucidates the theoretical implications of Haiti's revolution both for the eighteenth century and for the twenty-first century. "Universal Emancipation" will be of interest not only to scholars and students of the Haitian Revolution and postcolonial francophone studies but also to readers interested in critical theory and its relation to history and political science.

Upbuilding Black Durham: Gender, Class, and Black Community Development in the Jim Crow South

Abstract: This book describes how diversity and dissent strengthened the black community.In the 1910s, both W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington praised the black community in Durham, North Carolina, for its exceptional race progress. Migration, urbanization, and industrialization had turned black Durham from a post - Civil War liberation community into the "capital of the black middle class." African Americans owned and operated mills, factories, churches, schools, and an array of retail services, shops, community organizations, and race institutions. Using interviews, narratives, and family stories, Leslie Brown animates the history of this remarkable city from emancipation to the civil rights era, as freed people and their descendants struggled among themselves and with whites to give meaning to black freedom.Brown paints Durham in the Jim Crow era as a place of dynamic change where despite common aspirations, gender and class conflicts emerged. Placing African American women at the center of the story, Brown describes how black Durham's multiple constituencies experienced a range of social conditions. Shifting the historical perspective away from seeing solidarity as essential to effective struggle or viewing dissent as a measure of weakness, Brown demonstrates that friction among African Americans generated rather than depleted energy, sparking many activist initiatives on behalf of the black community.

The patient movement as an emancipation movement.

Abstract: Objective To suggest that the patient movement is an emancipation movement. Background The patient movement is young and fragmented; and it can seem confusing because it lacks an explicit ideology with intellectual and theoretical underpinnings. Methods Drawing mainly on the experiences and the published writings of patient activists, the author identified eight aspects of the patient movement that could be compared with aspects of recognized emancipation movements: the radicalization of activists; the creation of new knowledge; the identification of guiding principles; the sense of direction; the unmasking of new issues; schisms within the movement and allies outside it; and the gradual social acceptance of some of the ideas (here standards of health care) that activists work to promote. Results Similarities between certain aspects of the patient movement and of the recognized emancipation movements were close. Conclusion The patient movement can be regarded as an emancipation movement, albeit an immature one.

Power, Resistance and Women Politicians in Cambodia: Discourses of Emancipation

Abstract: Introduction Hybrid Liberal Democracy in a Cambodian Context The Look of Discursive Disciplinary Power Education and Normalizing as Strategies of Resistance The Strategy of Establishing New Truths Women's Identities as Means of Resistance De-naturalizing as Resistance Globalization, Women's Political Participation and the Politics of Resistance Concluding Reflections References Index

Obstacles for Women in Leadership Positions: The Case of South Africa

Abstract: Truong, Thi Thuy Hang. 2004. “Gender Equality in Vietnam and Some Issues in Vision 2015.” In Studies on Humans and Human Resources, ed. Pham Minh Hac, Pham Thanh Nghi, and Vu Thi Minh Chi, 429–43. Research Yearbook no. 3. Hanoi: Social Sciences Publishing House. ———. 2006. “Women’s Struggle for Emancipation in Vietnam: Situation and Views.” Paper presented at the Women’s Struggle for Emancipation International Conference, April 5, Temple University, Philadelphia. UN Development Programme. 2003. Millennium Development Goals: Closing the Millennium Gaps. Hanoi: UN Development Programme. ❙

The Politics of Jewish Commerce: Economic Thought and Emancipation in Europe, 1638–1848

Abstract: This study demonstrates the centrality of economic rationales to debates on Jews' status in Italy, Britain, France and Germany during the course of two centuries. It delineates the common themes that informed these debates - the ideal republic and the 'ancient constitution', the conflict between virtue and commerce, and the notion of useful and productive labor. It thus provides an overview of the political-economic dimensions of Jewish emancipation literature of this period. This overview is viewed against the backdrop of broader controversies within European society over the effects of commerce on inherited political values and institutions. By focusing on economic attitudes toward Jews, the book also illuminates European intellectual approaches toward economic modernity. By elucidating these general debates, it renders more contemporary Jewish economic self-conceptions - and the enormous impetus that Jewish reformist movements placed on the Jews' economic and occupational transformation - fully explicable.

‘A Good West Indian, a Good African, and, in Short, a Good Britisher’:1 Black and British in a Colour-Conscious Empire, 1760–1950

Abstract: From the late eighteenth century onwards the majority of the inhabitants of the expanding British overseas empire were increasingly non-Europeans. Racial and ethnic discrimination was at the heart of British imperial governance, in the black Atlantic world shaped by a long history of slave-holding and then the growth of pseudo-scientific racial ideas in the nineteenth century. Whites rarely perceived the black and brown subjects they ruled as being British, although legally all, irrespective of race or ethnicity, were subjects of the Crown. The institutions of empire helped to foster among many black people in the Atlantic world the use of the English language and a strong sense that they too were British. An identity of ‘Britishness’ was encouraged by service in the naval and military forces of the Crown, by slave emancipation and by Christian missions, especially through education. Imperial ideologies focused on the monarch helped nurture imperial loyalties. In African colonies where local laws and whit...

Problems of Feminist Leadership among Educated Women in Ethiopia Taking Stock in the Third Millennium

Abstract: Feminist leadership is a matter of grave concern in Ethiopia where educated women appear to be obliged to fight individual battles to sustain their own agendas on the emancipation of women. Being m...

Constructing immigrant policies : research-policy relations and immigrant integration in the Netherlands (1970-2004)

Abstract: In spite of decades of scientific research and policy-making, immigrant integration has remained an issue that defies a clear definition. There has been constant, growing disagreement about what immigrant integration actually means. Does it mean integration, emancipation or adaptation? Does it involve minorities, ‘allochthonous’, or foreigners? Does it refer to social-economic factors or socialcultural factors and what would be relation between these factors? Does it mean that the Netherlands has become a multicultural society, or does it rather mean that such a prospect of multiculturalism has to be averted? Different ways of defining and understanding immigrant integration have led to different types of research and various policies over the past decades. However, controversy has persisted on the question of what immigrant integration actually means. Various research and policy paradigms have come and gone, but no single paradigm has been so convincing that it persisted for more than a decade or so. This makes immigrant integration an intractable controversy (Rein & Schon, 1994) or a ‘wicked problem’ (Rittel & Webber, 1973).

Empowerment through ICT: A critical discourse analysis of the Egyptian ICT policy.

Abstract: ICT is often promoted as a solution to a range of social ills. This is particularly true for the use of ICT in developing countries. ICT deployment can address numerous issues but its overall aim is the empowerment and emancipation of individuals with the aim of improving society. This chapter takes a critical approach to such discourses and asks which claims to emancipation are raised and how they are underpinned. Using a Habermasian framework, the chapter undertakes a critical discourse analysis of the Egyptian ICT policy. This important document, which has inspired much African ICT policy, is analysed to identify the validity claims it raises. These claims, many of which are explicitly aimed at emancipation and empowerment, are then contrasted with social realities as well as the overall structure of the policy document. This comparison shows that empowerment is not only not achieved, but arguably not a primary aim of the policy in the first place. Instead, claims to empowerment are used to legitimise particular aims which conflict with empowerment. The chapter concludes with a critical reflection of the chosen approach and findings.

Toward a New "Logic" of Emancipation: Foucault and Ranciere

Abstract: Where one searches for the hidden beneath the apparent, a position of mastery is established. —Jacques Ranciere, The Politics of Aesthetics INTRODUCTION The idea of emancipation plays a central role in modern education. To the extent that education is about more than the transmission of content and culture but involves an interest in fostering independence and autonomy, education can be said to be a process that aims at the emancipation of the child or the student. This is not only true of those traditions within educational theory and practice that are informed by an explicit political agenda. It can be said of any approach that acknowledges that there is a fundamental distinction between education and indoctrination. Although there is likely to be widespread support among educators for the "sentiment" of emancipation, there may well be quite different views about what emancipation actually entails and how it can be achieved through educational processes and practices. My purpose in this essay is twofold. First, I wish to articulate and problematize what I see as the prevailing understanding of emancipation in modern educational thought. Against this background I will then sketch the outlines of a different conception of emancipation, one which might be able to overcome some of the problems and contradictions within the prevailing view. To develop the contours of this new "logic" of emancipation I will draw upon Michel Foucault's work and, to a lesser extent, that of Jacques Ranciere. This essay is an attempt to think emancipation differently and to begin to explore how and why this might matter for education.

Women's Activism and Feminist Agency in Mozambique and Nicaragua

Abstract: List of Maps and Tables Preface Acknowledgements List of Acronyms 1. "Women Must Occupy and Give Themselves the Place They Deserve" Women's Activism and Feminist Agency in Mozambique and Nicaragua 2. "After Acknowledging Differences, We Must Also See What We Have in Common" Feminist Contestations and Commonalities across First World/Third World, African, and Latin American Divides 3. "Doing a Revolution Doesn't Stop You from Being Machista" The Birth of Revolutionary Women's Organizations and the Limits of Marxism-Leninism in Mozambique and Nicaragua 4. "Women are Not Cows-We Are Active Agents of History" Autonomy Struggles Emerge in Mozambique and Nicaragua 5. "The Oppressed Woman Is Easier to Deal With" Political Participation, Legal Reforms, and Cultural Constraints in Mozambique and Nicaragua 6. "I Can Do Anything a Man Can Do" Military Participation, Economic Production, and Women's Emancipation in Mozambique and Nicaragua 7. "There Are No Alternatives: Is This Really Democracy?" Democratization and Civil Society in Mozambique and Nicaragua 8. "Partners in the Home, at Work, and on the Street" The Contemporary Women's Movements and Emergent Feminisms in Mozambique and Nicaragua Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

God and Slavery in America: Francis Wayland and the Evangelical Conscience

Abstract: The work examines the antislavery writings of Francis Wayland (1796-1865). Wayland pastored churches in Boston and Providence, but he left his indelible mark as the fourth and twenty-eight year president of Brown University (1827-1855). The author of numerous works on moral science, economics, philosophy, education, and the Baptist denomination, his administration marked a transitional stage in the emergence of American colleges from a classically oriented curriculum to an educational philosophy based on science and modern languages. Wayland left an enduring legacy at Brown, but it was his antislavery writings that brought him the most notoriety and controversy. Developed throughout his writings, rather than systematically in a major work, his antislavery views were shaped and tested in the political and intellectual climate of the antebellum world in which he lived. First developed in The Elements of Moral Science (1835), he tested the boundaries of activism in The Limitations of Human Responsibility (1838), and publicly debated antislavery in Domestic Slavery Considered as a Scriptural Institution (1845). The political crisis from the Mexican-American War through the Kansas-Nebraska Act heightened Wayland’s activism as delineated in The Duty of Obedience to the Civil Magistrate (1847), his noncompliance with the Fugitive Slave Law, and his public address on the KansasNebraska Bill (1854). In 1861 he became a committed Unionist. I argue that Francis Wayland was a mediating figure in the controversy between abolitionists and proslavery apologists and that his life was a microcosm of the transition that many individuals made from moderate antislavery to abolitionism. Wayland proved unique in that he was heavily coveted by Northern abolitionists who sought his unconditional support and yet he was respected by Southerners who appreciated his uncomdemning attitude toward slaveholders even while he opposed slavery. I argue that Wayland’s transition from reluctant critic to public activist was not solely due to the political sweep of events, but that his latter activism was already marked in his earlier work. Most importantly, his life demonstrated both the limits and possibilities in the history of American antislavery. INDEX WORDS: Francis Wayland, Antislavery, Abolitionist, Baptist Denomination, Richard Fuller, William Hague, Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor, William Lloyd Garrison, Anthony Burns, Mexican-American War, Compromise of 1850, Fugitive Slave Law, Civil Disobedience, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Civil War, Pacifism, Emancipation, Freedmen GOD AND SLAVERY IN AMERICA: FRANCIS WAYLAND AND THE EVANGELICAL CONSCIENCE

Harriet Jacobs and the "Dear Old Flag"

Abstract: In its August 20, 1864 issue, the Anglo-African, a newspaper whose correspondents tracked events in African American communities and black regiments in the South, carried a report on ceremonies held on August First in Alexandria, a Union-controlled Virginia city that was increasingly occupied by black troops and ex-slaves. The ceremonies commemorated the "festal day of the British West India Emancipation, a day of great interest to every colored American." The event also honored the Ninth Army's Colored Division, newly renamed the L'Ouverture Division, and the physicians and caregivers at the Colored Hospital (now called the L'Ouverture Hospital) in refugee-filled Alexandria. After noting the "liberal" financial contribution given by sick and wounded soldiers, the reporter praised the "collation" or "splendid repast" prepared "in most excellent style" by "Mrs. Jacobs" of Alexandria and a committee of "her lady friends" (L'Ouverture 1-2). Among readers of the Anglo-African, which has been called "the foremost black newspaper of the Civil War era" (Ripley 5:28), the fame of Harriet Jacobs, author of Linda, or Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) and founder, with her daughter, of a school in Alexandria described as the "Jacobs (Linda) School" (Yellin 184), was so widespread that no further identification was required. The Anglo-African also reported that the same Mrs. Jacobs had presented a flag and made a speech, which was "admirably done." Unfortunately, as the editor put it, the correspondent "failed to send" Jacobs's remarks ("At L'Ouverture Hospital"). In its next issue the Anglo-African, after apologizing for its previous "mistake," reprinted the report, this time including the text of the speech. "Calm and unassuming (the peculiar characteristic of this estimable lady), she came forward and presented to Dr. Barker [the Surgeon in Chief at L'Ouverture Hospital] a fine flag" and then spoke as follows. PHYSICIANS, SOLDIERS AND FRIENDS: For the first time in Alexandria we have met to celebrate a day made historical to our race--the day of BRITISH WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. It is thirty-one years to-day since the shackels [sic ] fell from the British slave--since his fetters were broken. British gold paid for that emancipation act. We are passing through times that will secure for us a higher and nobler celebration. American gold will never secure freedom, equal rights and justice to our race. No! before these can come American slavery must be crushed, and its foul stain wiped from the Nation[']s escutcheon. Soldiers, what we have got came through the strength and valor of your right arms. Three years ago this flag had no significance for you, we could not cherish it as our emblem of freedom. You then had no part in the bloody struggle for your country, your patriotism was spurned; but to-day you are in arms for the freedom of your race and the defence of your country--to-day this flag is significant to you. Soldiers you have made it the symbol of freedom for the slave, unfurl it, stand by it and fight for it, until the breeze upon which it floats shall be so pure, that a slave cannot breathe its air. Through the kindness of friends in Pennsylvania I present this flag to you. Soldiers they have confidence in your loyalty, aye in your courage and daring. They remember Wagner, Fort Pillow, and Plymouth. On the record of this rebellion your names will occupy no mean place. On the pages of history that honored grave at Wagner will make you glorious: then make that spot a sacred shrine where your countrymen, your children, and children[']s children, shall visit and revere, even to their latest generation. Dr. Barker in presenting this flag to you for L'Ouverture Hospital--you, the soldier's physician and friend--you, who have by your many acts so endeared yourself to all within this place; upon you and this institution I invoke the blessings of Almighty God. …

Linguagem: ensinar novas paisagens/novas linguagens

Abstract: bell hooks relates the oppressions, which are caused by the apology to the standard English, to the uses of the varieties from English language in the USA. The author discusses the place of language in the power relations, specifically in the racial hierarchies, and she proposes the resignification of the linguistic uses aiming at the emancipation of the oppressors.

Human Rights Practice: Possibilities and Pitfalls for Developing Emancipatory Social Work

Abstract: This paper seeks to analyse the contribution of a human rights perspective to emancipatory social work. Human rights practice builds on long-standing values and theoretical frameworks related to emancipatory, radical and structural social work and anti-oppressive practice. However, historical tensions within social work, notably in the United Kingdom, continue in contemporary forms, magnified by the global impact of neo-liberalism. The paper considers connections between human rights and other frameworks, including professional codes; ethical critiques drawing on feminist and indigenous perspectives; the articulation of human rights with social justice; and the strength of a rights-based approach demonstrated by community campaigns and service-user movements. It also addresses discontinuities between human rights and trends in social work and the wider context, including managerialism, privatization, and the consumerization of rights; unexamined rhetoric and limited regulatory interpretations; the dangers...

Human Rights Ideology and Dimensions of Power: A Radical Approach to the State, Property, and Discrimination

Abstract: This article advances the argument that there is a distinct ideology of Human Rights embedded in the International Bill of Rights (IBR). Instead of contrasting ideologies in terms of their stance on equality and liberty, it suggests employing three dimensions of power—political, economic, and social that are defined in relation to the positions taken on the state, property, and discrimination, respectively—in assessing the extent to which ideologies oppose the concentration of power and promise emancipation. It then analyzes the three documents that constitute the IBR as the textual sources of a distinct Human Rights Ideology on these three dimensions to reveal its radical and emancipatory characteristics, which tend to be missed or deliberately undermined. It questions the aptness of liberal democracy, the welfare state, and the capitalist economy for fulfilling the main premise of this ideology— equality in dignity .

From the Greek Stage to the Martinican Shores: A Caribbean Antigone

Abstract: In his first play, Une Maniere d'Antigone (1975), Patrick Chamoiseau brings together Greek mythology and the history of Martinique. This article compares this version with the Sophoclean version, considering the transformations made by the Martinican playwright in terms of time and space, plot, characters and language so as to determine how different or similar the Caribbean Antigone is from her Greek sister. By adapting a famous Greek myth on the Antillean stage, Chamoiseau realizes a literary transposition while reaffirming his strong political opposition towards France. This play inscribes itself in the vast movement of subversion and contestation of the classic literary tradition by postcolonial writers who create their own literature based on the adaptation of Western classics. Chamoiseau's rewriting of the Antigone myth allows for a reappropriation and a revalorization of a forgotten history. Additionally, it presents an assertion of resistance and a plea for emancipation from both literary and political domination.