Authenticity and Heidegger's Antigone

Bibliographic Data

ID8409987
AuthorsKatherine Withy (Georgetown University, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume45
Issue3
Pages239-253
Publication date2014-09-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1773 • E-ISSN: 2332-0486
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00071773.2014.968993
OpenAlexW1996000810
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited15

Sophocles' Antigone is the only individual whom Heidegger names as authentic. But the usual interpretations of Heidegger's ‘authenticity’ (as being-towards-death, taking responsibility for norms, world-historical creation, and a neo-Aristotelian phronēsis) either do not apply to Antigone or do not capture what Heidegger finds significant about her. By working through these failures, I develop an interpretation of Heideggerian authenticity that is adequate to his Antigone. The crucial step is accurately identifying the finitude to which Antigone authentically relates: what Heidegger calls ‘uncanniness' (Unheimlichkeit). I argue that uncanniness names being's presencing through self-withdrawal and that Antigone stands authentically towards this in her responsiveness to the call of being and her reticence at the end of explanation. In conclusion, I consider Sophocles' own creative act, which bequeathed to the West an understanding of being and a vision of how to relate to it authentically. I argue that Sophocles' status as a world-historical creator does not provide a competing picture of authenticity but must itself be understood as responsive and reticent

Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy) · Linguistics · Literature · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access