Prophesying Tragedy: Sign and Voice in Sophocles' Theban Plays by Rebecca W. Bushnell (review)

Book Reviews83 the Sociology ofDeviance: A Personal Assessment," with a childhood anecdote (his inability to avoid a finger-wrestling challenge for fear of being labeled a wimp), and although his thesis is that the reason females commit fewer crimes than men is not simply because they lack opportunity as some researchers have suggested, the tone ofthe essay follows the traditional male mode ofinsisting others are wrong in order to make his own conclusions appear superior, rather than the more feminist model of appreciating and building on the work ofprevious theorists. Patrick O'Donnell, in "Becoming Discourse: Eudora Welty's 'Petrified Man,' " questions "the interior history ofthe textual language itself (21), but his analysis ofthe etymology of words in the Welty story, petrifylpeterlpaterlputery, etc., seems less "feminist" than a combination Freud and the OED, though perhaps the same could be said of some of his "French feminist theorist" sources, too. In "Reflections on Feminism and Political Theory," Lawrence A. Scaff recognizes that traditional male "theoretical discourse itself has become suspect as a "discourse ofdomination" (2), yet he seems disconcerted that "there is no single, authoritative" feminist theory (6). He concludes, "Indeed, the choice of a language is itself likely to become a political issue" (12); surely it already is. A difficulty of the five essays by men is their use of a clotted rhetoric that is gaining popularity in certain feminist criticism circles. But they are still worth reading, including Jerrold E. Hogle's commentary on Hamlet and particularly Doug McAdam's "Gender Implications of the Traditional Academic Conception of the Political." The best news in the book is that the project has resulted in "the hiring offeminist faculty members in several departments and in positive promotion and tenure decisions for feminist scholars in others" (138). LOIS MARCHINO University of Texas at El Paso REBECCA W. BUSHNELL. Prophesying Tragedy: Sign and Voice in Sophocles' Theban Plays. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988. 133 p. I his book uses basic semiotic concepts to consider two topics, one literary (the conflict between prophetic/divine "sign" and heroic human "voice" in certain dramas ofSophocles), the other historical (the parallel uses ofprophecy in drama and in politics in fifth-century Athens). The strength and value of the book lie in Bushnell's literary discussion, which includes the political aspect of hero/prophet confrontation—that is, the attempt by the hero to seize power in society as well as to define himself. The second, specifically historical, topic is outlined in generalized assertions supported by little detailed evidence. Bushnell prefaces the body ofher work by observing that scenes ofprophecy in Greek tragedy frequently become the pivotal element ofthe plot: "Because heroes must defy prophecy and prophecy must always come true . . ."(x). Again, "Prophets speak in tragedies so that heroes may defy them and thus define 84Rocky Mountain Review themselves in speaking the prophet's contradiction" (5). She continues with a general discussion ofprophecy in Homeric times—prophecy through the "sign system" of omens—and in later times, when personified gods had almost disappeared from drama. Human "fate" then came to be revealed through the medium ofpresumably divinely inspired prophets. "5fet the linguistic system of signs remained as enigmatic and open to misinterpretation, accidental or deliberate, as the earlier system of omens had been. She refers also to the "silences" of linguistic prophecy, which made interpretation problematic by withholding information. In chapter 2, Bushnell surprisingly, but I think appropriately, takes as starting point for detailed discussion of her topics the non-dramatic "tragedy of Hector" in the Iliad. This, she writes, forms the prototype relationship of hero and prophet. She documents Hector's deliberate misreading (28, 33) of bird signs and equates this with an attempt on his part to make his own "plot"—his own interpretation—the "truth" rather than accept the prophecy of disaster foretold by Polydamas, the traditional arbiter of "truth" (33-35). By appropriating prophetic "truth," Hector's misreading will aid him in the attainitíent of power in his society. In chapter 3, "Speech and Authority: Antigone," Bushnell pursues the concept ofheroic defiance ofdivine prophecy and the uses ofsilence in these prophecies. But she has difficulty sorting out the ambiguities ofthe stands taken by...