The Limit of Representation or the Representation of the Limit. A Perspective on the Bond between Myth and Nazism in Bertolt Brecht's Antigone

Abstract

This article aims to formulate a hypothesis that poses a possible interpretation of the connection that occurs between the myth of Antigone and Nazism in Bertolt Brecht’s play Die Antigone des Sophokles nach der Hölderlinschen Übertragung für die Bühne bearbeitet von Brecht. From an analysis of the structural and semantic level of the piece, a repeated and systematic work with the idea of liminality -that finds a synthesis in the figure of Polynices- is evidenced. Built like a homo sacer, structurally this character condensed nucleus of meaning relevant to certain aspects of the Nazis modes of presentation and representation of death. In this sense, the association established by Brecht rests on a reformulation and mobilizing structures of representation that builds a representation that does not matter as object but as representation itself.