Abstract
The symbol:‘/’, for ‘Antithesis’, is used throughout this essay to indicate the main alternations in its voicing. What I have in mind is to project the contentiousness that constitutes narration through this discussion of Statius' epic. ‘/’ will mark exchange between the (binary/convergent) views of an ‘Eteocles’ and a ‘Polynices’, then, yes, but also between warring textual ‘forces’ such asuirtus/planctus, etc. / etc. For faction and fraction / threaten to / multiply in, and as, ‘Thebaid’ - to the power of Seven, or regression to Infinity. The essay exploresThebais'- / Barthes' insight:(T)he antithesis is the battle between two plenitudes set ritually face to face like two fully armed warriors; the Antithesis is the figure of thegivenopposition, eternal, eternally recurrent: the figure of the inexpiable. Every passage through the wall of the Antithesis thus constitutes a transgression …
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