Teaching Sophocles’ Antigone through Film:

Challenges and Reflections

Panos Seranis

Introduction

This paper reports the findings of a small case study with six (6) A-Level (16-17 years
old) students at a high school (Lyceum) for Greek immigrant students in Germany.
It presents an attempt to actively engage students in the study of classical drama,
namely Sophocles’ Antigone, through the use of a televised film production. The pa-
per provides a concise literature review on the reception of classical drama in films
and on the usage of films in the literature classroom. It then focuses on the particu-
lar case study and the benefits that emerge from study of Antigone through film, as
they were understood by the teacher but also expressed by the students in response
questionnaires.

Using film in the literature classroom: An overview

In a study published in 1973 (Parker and Daley), it was reported that that the aver-
age American teenager will have seen over 15000 hours of television and over 500
films. A 1999 study (Bradshow and Nichols, 2004) showed that the average Ameri-
can child lives in a household with 2.9 televisions, 1.8 VCRs, 3.1 radios, 2.1 CD play-
ers, 1.4 video game players, and 1 computer. Based on in-depth interviews and a de-
tailed comparative survey of 6- to 16-year-olds across Europe and in Israel, another
study (Livingstone and Bovill, 2001) concluded that children now spend more time
watching television than they do in school or indeed any other activity apart from
sleeping. If one adds to that the rapid development of new media and technology
and the ever increasing exposure of teenagers to the internet and computer games,
blogs and similar activities on the Internet one realise how powerful the moving im-
age is for today’s youth.

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Studies in classics and the cinema show a growing interest in the ways, in which
the classical world is represented in popular culture and are now an established part
of studies in the reception of classical tradition at colleges and universities1. Addi-
tionally, the use of film (and other media) in accessing literature is also well-estab-
lished in the literature classroom (Katz, 1969; Maynard, 1977; Beach and Marshall,
1990; Fehlman, 1994; Teasley and Wilder, 1997; Christel and Krueger, 2001; Living-
stone and Bovill, 2001; Buckingham, 2003; Bull and Kadjer, 2004, Kist, 2005; Curry,
2006; Kadjer, 2006; Beach et al., 2006; Hobbs, 2007). This is based on the fact that
literature and film cater for similar needs: (a) they are both part of the humanities, (b)
they are both dealing with ‘texts’, (c) they arouse emotional responses to the audi-
ence, (d) they engage the audience with a story by helping them identify or sympa-
thise with the main character, (e) they provide audiences with a vicarious experience
by letting them into an “other world” (Katz, 1969; Using Film in the Classroom,
2003) and (f) they both offer enjoyment. In recent years, the area has expanded so
dramatically that the term media literacy is defined as students’ ability to understand,
analyse, interpret and deconstruct the symbolisms of a wide range of media, i.e.,
newspapers and magazines, films, television, radio, photography composed music, ad-
vertising and the internet (Buckingham, 2003).
However, film and literature also differ in the way they convey information to the
“reader”, in their “textual substance”. Several theorists (Hastrup, 1992) argue that the
visual text is not suitable enough to explain complex social and cultural phenomena
without a written (or spoken) text to accompany it. On the other hand, the written
text does not take advantage of the picture or the sound that accompany the visual
media (Godwin, 2003). This inability of the visual to convey an autonomous mean-
ing, without juxtaposition or analysis, has raised concerns with regard to the usage of
films in the literature classroom. The major criticism is based on (a) the quality of a
film as ‘inferior’, compared to the literary work, (b) the fear that literature might be
perceived of secondary importance or might be sidetracked by the film viewing
(Davies, 2000) or (c) the fear that some teachers might use film in order to fill a gap
when they have nothing else planned (Golden, 2001) turning thus the students into
totally passive viewers (Vetrie, 2004).
These concerns, however, deal more with teachers’ perceptions to popular cul-
ture2 as opposed to high culture (a term that normally literature or theater fall with-

1 There are certainly the polemics of this approach who argue that studies as such “might well be
viewed at worst as acts of cultural vandalism, and at best as vulgar attempts to attract students to a
discipline in crisis”, according to Maria Wyke, “Ancient Rome and the traditions of Film History”,
16 April 1999 http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fr0499/mwfr6b.htm
2 In a very interesting analysis, Michael Vetrie, “Using Films to Increase Literacy Skills”, English Jour-
nal 93, no. 3 (2004): 44, a teacher himself, argues that theatre in antiquity, and classical drama in par-
ticular, was perceived as the popular culture of that era and Sophocles was seen as a newcomer who
would change and popularise the legends Greek tragedy relied upon. He also argues that the pop-

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 Teaching Sophocles’ Antigone through Film: Challenges and Reflections

in) and with how the medium is used in the classroom rather than the usefulness of
the medium itself. Additionally, the fact that the use of visual literacy requires a par-
adigm shift in teachers’ already existing teaching theories and schemata, methods and
techniques to analyse the film in a concrete and meaningful way, may also discour-
age some practitioners from using films in the literature classroom.

The subject in the Greek curriculum

The subject is taught as a core subject for all students of the second year of the
Lyceum (16-17 years old students) and is taught in the original for 2 hours per week.
The course, as specified in the curriculum orders, follows a heavy linguistic route: ex-
amination requirements call students to translate a passage of 12-14 lines (30 per cent
of assessment weighting), answer two (2) exercises on grammar and syntax (30 per
cent of assessment weighting), answer a question on the origins and development of
ancient drama (10 per cent of assessment weighting) and two content questions (30
per cent of assessment weighting) based on their understanding of the play3. Given
the profile of my students and having experience from teaching the subject in previ-
ous years, I decided that I should deviate from this line and teach the particular
course as drama rather than as a language course, provided that I wanted to keep all
students involved in the lessons. The outcomes of this case study seem to justify this
decision for the reasons explained later in this paper.

The student sample

All but one4 students have had very limited exposure to the classical Greek language
in the past. They were taught the basic elements of the Greek language the year be-
fore and, thus, it was very difficult for them to follow the play in the original. These
students have attended the German school system till the age of 15-16 (compulsory
education) and they have enrolled in the Greek Lyceum in order to gain access to
university examinations for study in Greek academic institutions. They left German

ular stage of classical Greece reflected an equally violent world as the world which is depicted in
films today.
3 The linguistic importance assigned to the teaching of the subject is further illustrated by the fact
that the curriculum orders require teachers to cover only the first half of the play (up to episode
three) in detail and only provide summaries of the other half. This way, the unity of the play is lost
and students acquire only a fragmentary understanding of the tragedy at issue.
4 A girl enrolled in the school that year coming from a German Realschule. She had no knowledge of
classical Greek or of classical drama.

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 Panos Seranis

schooling with fairly low grades and they had major problems in writing, vocabulary
and grammar.
My students do not differ from other teenagers in that their exposure to films and
other visual media was by far greater compared to literature. This became clear from
discussions I have had with them prior to the lessons. They do not go to the cinema
very often, but they regularly watch films on the television or download films on
their computers which then share with each other. Their preferences fall more or less
within the stereotypical gender picture: boys were very keen on action and violence,
whereas girls favored love stories and drama, so I thought that there was something
there for everybody in Sophocles’ Antigone.

The televised production

Antigone is a very popular drama, both on stage and on screen. From a simple Google
search, I was able to identify 17 different attempts to present Antigone on the big
screen5. The best known is, perhaps, the 1962 Tzavelas film with Irene Papas in the
lead role. However, I decided (based on my personal, and, admittedly, idiosyncratic
preferences) to use the 1984 BBC production of Don Taylor as the main film for
showing in the classroom and the base for the discussions that followed6.The film was
a televised production, both translated and directed by Don Taylor, with Juliet Steven-
son in the role of Antigone. The film has been screened in Greece too by the Greek
National Broadcasting Company (ERT).This was a fortunate coincidence, as the film
has been subtitled in Greek and could therefore be used in the classroom. Reasons
for my decision, included amongst others:
– The film is a “literal translation” of the play, in the sense that it stays very close to
the original in terms of the written word and to this respect I found it was suit-
able for use in the classroom.
– The film was directed by Don Taylor, an accomplished director, who studied lit-
erature at Oxford and had mostly directed theatrical adaptations for BBC. His ma-
jor achievement, while working for the BBC, was the production of the trilogy
Theban plays, i.e., the production of Antigone, Oedipus Tyrannus and Oedipus at
Colonus.
– I was also very keen on Taylor’s directing: for example, I very much liked the way
he has depicted that Creon was omnipresent on stage in the opening scenes by

5 For more information, the reader can visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) at www.imdb.com.
These film versions of Antigone come in various formats and include filmed plays, modernisations
(based on the works of Brecht and Anouilh) and made-for-TV films.
6 The complete BBC televised production (in 11 separate video clips) can be viewed online on the
platform youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGT24uYPb2Y.

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using enormous posters of his portrait, although the scene does not require his
physical appearance. I also found the actors’ performances very fitting to the play,
especially the guard who was magnificent in his role of the cunning/naive peas-
ant who wishes to escape the penalty of death at any rate but at the same time he
can utter a number of “dangerous” truths that would most certainly evoke the
king’s anger without him worrying too much about it! The particular scenes with
Creon and the guard were also excellent examples to demonstrate to my students
that even in very tragic moments, humor is still apparent, a notion that was clear-
ly missing from Tzavelas’ film, for instance.

Organising the lessons

Since my students had no knowledge of the play and the circumstances that born
tragedy in classical Athens, I provided them with a concise introduction of both at
the beginning of the lessons. I also talked them through the basic conventions of film,
as their familiarity with films did by no means guarantee that they were in a position
to analyze them as a moving image text whose unique and complex language should
be properly understood to be fruitfully applied in the classroom (Moving Images in
the Classroom, 2000).
In my mind I have had a fear that by uncovering the basics of the plot, the view-
ing might appear less appealing to them. Nevertheless, I made it clear from the very
beginning that we would not simply watch the film as an add-on to the written text:
watching would constitute a key element of our lessons (Christel, 2001) and a num-
ber of follow up activities, both verbal and written would be based on the viewings.
The film would facilitate our efforts to decode information from the text in an in-
formed and analytical way (Olson, 2008) in order to gain a better understanding of
Antigone. I also emphasised the need for an inter-play between the visual and the
written world, where my students should apply their existing knowledge schemata to
both genres. In attempting to show the commonalities of the two genres and draw
their attention to key elements of both the film and the play we talked about narra-
tive and how narration is similar to film and literature, how the main characters are
portrayed in film and in literature, setting elements (costumes, hair styling, body lan-
guage, gestures) they need to look out for, whether actors are believable in their roles,
and certain techniques filmmakers use in order to convey meaning (camera angles,
close-ups, zoom) based on the written text.
Lessons were not identical, as no lesson is to another. For the sake of the discus-
sion here I shall give a brief account of what a lesson could be like. A passage suit-
able to be taught within a 45 minute slot was selected, as if I were to teach it in the
class from the book. I would, then, closely watch the corresponding part of the film
at home and “freeze” the picture from time to time to make notes of the issues that
I would like to highlight in the class. Usually, prior to any screening in the class, I

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would ask students to recapitulate the main aspects we discussed in the class in the
previous lesson/s as the starting point for the new viewing, an exercise that relates the
already acquired knowledge to the new knowledge. In order to facilitate my students’
‘reading’ of the film, I would always write on the whiteboard Aristotle’s six elements
of drama and ask them to think in terms of:

– MUQOS (PLOT): what happens in a play; the order of events, the story as op-
posed to the theme.
– DIANOIA (THEME): what the play means as opposed to what happens (plot);
the main idea within the play.
– HQOS (CHARACTER): the personality or the part an actor represents in a play.
– LEXIS (DICTION/LANGUAGE/DIALOGUE): the word choices made by the
playwright.
– MELOS (MUSIC/RHYTHM): by music Aristotle meant the sound, rhythm and
melody of the speeches.
– OyIS (SPECTACLE): the visual elements of the production of a play; the
scenery, costumes, and special effects in a production.

There were occasions, where I would write on the whiteboard or hand-out a

worksheet with themes or questions my students should try to answer after the view-
ing and would occupy our discussions in that particular lesson. Students would then
engage in a discussion, either prompted by my questions or led by their own com-
ments, based on what they had just seen. During the discussion, I would point out
key issues from the text itself, elements I considered important and they were not ful-
ly covered on the screen. To give an example, it was important for my students to un-
derstand how Antigone and Ismene, for instance, use the words philein and philos with
a double meaning, to denote not only a friend, but also to talk about brotherly love,
and consider to whom Antigone applies this term in the prologue.Therefore, I would
always read the text to my students, provide them with the translation in Modern
Greek and discuss with them key issues for the understanding of the characters or the
plot or for the ways in which Sophocles would communicate his message to the tar-
get audience.
At the end of the whole process and after we had spent two sessions summariz-
ing the key aspects of the play, I have distributed a brief questionnaire to my students,
in order to get their own views on their film experience. The outcomes of this ques-
tionnaire are discussed later in the paper.

Understanding theatrical conventions

Greek tragedy was originally conceived to be performed and watched rather than to
be read. In this sense, one of the more obvious benefits of watching the play was the

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 Teaching Sophocles’ Antigone through Film: Challenges and Reflections

better understanding of information presented to students visually. Without me hav-

ing to go on in detail or provide long explanations, students were able to point out
basic theatrical conventions as well their function (and functionality) in the play.
These would include, for instance, the use of space in tragedy and its role in signify-
ing meaning (e.g. Eurydice chooses to lament for her beloved son inside the palace,
in her own chambers, whereas she shows no emotions in front of the chorus and the
Messenger), the rhythmic entrance of the chorus on the stage, the status of the cho-
rus in Antigone based on their costume and age. They were also able to understand
the differences in tone between the episodes and the chorus parts (stasimon) and ap-
preciated the presence of music to denote the atmosphere of different scenes. Addi-
tionally, it was much easier for them to identify key dramatic techniques such as dra-
matic irony, foreshadowing, epiphany, retardation, flashbacks and linguistic devices
such as metaphors (especially on Creon’s behalf, e.g., when referring to the state as a
ship), rhetorical figures of speech, use of similes, and their importance to the plot and
to the depiction of characters.Visualization brought all these aspects to life and helped
students “see” what they really meant for the play.

Understanding pivotal themes in the play

During class discussions and after having read their written essays, I was convinced
that my students were able to point out and focus on the key underlying themes of
the drama. Their classroom discussions revolved round the interlocking conflicts be-
tween men and women; age and youth; society and the individual; human justice and
divine law; blood ties and ties of citizenship; the obligations we owe to the living and
the dead, authority and power; the consequences of one’s uncompromising mind to
others and to one’s self.

Understanding the characters in the play

Students, as shown in their questionnaire responses, appreciated the fact that Sopho-
cles does portray his characters as complex human beings with strengths and weak-
nesses, not as oversimplified, clear-cut heroes as the characters presented in main-
stream Hollywood films. The main discussions focused, as one would expect, on the
juxtaposition between Antigone and Creon and the development of their characters
as the story would unfold7. The film demonstrated this progression in very clear ways

7 Students did not fail, however, to make informed judgments about Haemon, Ismene, Eurydice, the
Guard, the Messenger, Teiresias and the Chorus.

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and added to students’ understanding of the characters, their emotions, their relation
to other characters in the play and their actions.

Establishing authentic dialogue in the class

Equally fascinating, and rewarding for the teacher, was the fact that my students
would engage into meaningful, authentic dialogues with each other without me in-
tervening or initiating the discussion by asking leading questions. Generating their
own intrinsic responses helped students become actively engaged in the teaching-
learning process and develop their critical skills as readers. Students’ initial, rough re-
sponses, as generated by the film viewings, would become clear, precise and justified
views through interaction with their peers and the teacher. Hearing them comment
on the role of characters, for instance, make comparisons between earlier parts of the
viewings and the one they were watching, ask questions to each other as to how they
would react in a similar situation or question the characters’ words or actions, rein-
forced my view that seeing is understanding.

Stepping into the world of the play

Initially, students would dismiss certain aspects of the play as alien to their experi-
ences, based on assumptions that such things could not happen nowadays. My role
there was to help them become more flexible readers (Rabinowitz, 1980), not to see
all texts as mirrors of themselves, and think about the ‘authorial audience’, the view-
ers that Sophocles might have in mind when writing Antigone. I also had to remind
them or to help them realize that the overarching issues of the play exist in every so-
ciety, our society being no exception8. I remember that, when we were discussing the
cruelty of Creon’s decree that the person who would disobey him would be pun-
ished by public stoning, my students argued without any further thinking that these
things could not happen in any country today, in the 21st century. It took only a few
newspaper cuttings I had available to remind my class (a) about the penalty of pub-
lic stoning in Iran, for instance, to women who would defy the Saria laws or (b) the
practice of Saddam Hussein to kill his opponents with no proper trials to have my
students reconsider their views. Similarly, when we talked about the role of women
in antiquity and the dismissive comments Creon passes about women and Antigone,

8 I also pointed out that they themselves might have had to face dilemmas or unsettling situations sim-
ilar to the ones the characters in the play were facing and that one of the main aims of the tragedy
was to evoke the audience’s emotions, feel pity and fear for the characters and experience purifica-
tion, purgation (catharsis).

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 Teaching Sophocles’ Antigone through Film: Challenges and Reflections

in particular, we looked into newspaper cuttings reporting that women executives in

big US and European companies are earning 20-30 per cent less than their male col-
leagues, although they have the same qualifications and share equally important re-
sponsibilities in the company.
As the film viewing progressed, students seemed to identify common themes and
issues between Antigone and the modern world, see the play’s relevance for themselves
today. This was also apparent in linguistic terms, as one could often hear them asking
each other: “What would you have done if you were in his/her situation?” or “In what ways
would you have acted differently?” when referring to the acts of Creon, Antigone or Is-
mene for instance. These questions were an indication that they felt more comfort-
able expressing their views and appreciated the ‘subjective’ element of response to lit-
erature, moving away from the ‘right’ response of the teacher.

Development of verbal skills

Watching the film provided students with a canvas to base their responses on. The
film triggered their responses and helped them engage into meaningful classroom dis-
cussions with questions and answers raised mainly by them. As a learning tool, I found
that the film encouraged students to communicate their thoughts and feelings in an
articulate manner9. They were also able to construct well-thought arguments and
counteract their classmates’ views. The fact that they could also interact with their
classmates in a natural, non leading manner helped them develop their self-confi-
dence and become less intimidated by speaking their mind in the class.The verbal ac-
tivities and the role playing, regular elements of the teaching-learning process, main-
tained and reinforced the verbal element in the class, making thus students even more
assertive in expressing themselves orally. One of the most valuable outcomes of teach-
ing through film was that students with low self-esteem and low levels of print liter-
acy were not afraid to express their opinions in front of the class and share their views
with their classmates.

9 The positive relationship between development of verbal skills and active student engagement
through the study of drama has been demonstrated in many studies. See, for instance, the study with
American teenagers by A. Podlozny. “Strengthening Verbal Skills through the Use of Classroom Dra-
ma: A Clear Link”, Journal of Aesthetic Education 34, no. 3/4, (2000): 239-275. Students’ exposure to
aural/oral stimuli and storytelling is also strongly linked with increasing verbal skills, as shown by
Bob Lister in his study “Hearing Homer’s scream across three thousand years”, Children’s Literature
in Education 36, no. 4, (2005): 395-411, which is based on Homer’s Iliad with students 9-11 years
old.

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 Panos Seranis

Active learning vs. passive enjoyment

Teaching Antigone through film demonstrated the power of image to trigger initial
responses to what students have seen. This was extremely useful, because I could then
build on these ‘gut’ reactions to elicit further, more elaborate responses to the “text”.
There were several moments like this during the lessons and I could not possibly re-
port even a few in this limited space. To give just one example: when Eurydice en-
ters the scene asking to find out about her son, the Messenger gets a detailed de-
scription of the events in order to give her (and the audience) a full picture. Eury-
dice listens to the Messenger showing no emotion to the sound of her son having
committed suicide next to Antigone. Quietly, she receives the news and disappears in
her palace chambers. Students found that reaction ‘weird’ and they commented that
she seems tough and shows no emotions to the sound of such tragic news. This was
their instinctive response and one should probably expect nothing else from them.
‘And why, do you think is that?’ I asked and left them to think for a moment or two.
They all contributed their views and it was very encouraging to see that one would
add elements to the others’ responses, giving thus a full account of the issue discussed.
Responses included: it is not fitting for a queen to lament in front of men; she wants
to lament on her own, because this is a personal matter; women do not express their
feelings in front of men; her reaction leaves the audience with a feel of ‘unease’ that
perhaps a new tragedy might happen; it builds the dramatic tension, it engages the
audience more in the story.

Reinforcement and extension exercises

Once students are engaged in the teaching-learning process by watching the film, the
challenge is for the teacher to design and implement a number of activities and dis-
cussion prompts that will transfer students’ interest and motivation to a need to lis-
ten, write, discuss and utilize critical thinking skills. The activities we have been
working on were both oral and written and were calling students to step into the
world of the text and actively engage in meaning making (Baxter, 1999).

Hot seating

Hot seating was a popular activity: one student would adopt the role of a main
character, Antigone or Creon for instance, and the rest of the class, me included,
would jot down possible questions to ask that would give the characters a “hard”
time: questions were referring to their motives, their decisions, their attitudes towards
other characters in the play, and dilemmas in their decision making. My students
would come up with carefully thought through answers which showed not only a
basic understanding of the plot, but also a deeper appreciation of the characters, their

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motives, feelings and acts. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that students who were
reluctant to engage in class discussions in the past, would ‘star’ in this type of activi-
ty, giving complete, well-argued answers, which would bring the rest of the class in
a difficult situation, in the sense that they did not prepare hard enough questions to
ask.

Conscience alley

The conscience alley also seemed to work very well with my students. A volun-
teer took the role of either Antigone or Creon and the rest took roles of other char-
acters in the class. Each minor character should prepare a short text/speech with
things they would clearly like to address the protagonist should social and other con-
ditions allow (Baxter, 1999). It was very interesting to see minor characters of the
play, such Ismene for instance, to question Creon’s motives as suspect or unclear and
putting him to the test!

Literature vs. Film

Going back to the text (either the original or the translation) was a good prac-
tice, especially since the Greek subtitles of the film were rather economical towards
the original screenplay which was very close to Sophocles’ selection of language.
Sometimes, I would project selected lines on the whiteboard (Noden, 1999) and ask
my students to think how the written text has been transformed into a visual image
and the techniques the director uses in order to achieve this. To give an example, my
students were able to appreciate the careful structure of Creon’s edict, for instance,
and its link to a contemporary political speech, but, at the same time, through the en-
actment, they were able to appreciate how the other characters react to the sound of
his decree, elements that are normally left unsaid in the text for the reader to imag-
ine.

Creative writing tasks

Written exercises included creative writing tasks that gave students the opportu-
nity to understand the inter-relationships of the characters, the consequences of their
acts to other characters in the play and the emotions these acts could possibly evoke
to the target audience. The first activity, adapted by Whitaker (Razzano et al., 2002)
was called Antigone’s Dirty Laundry, although we extended the activities to other char-
acters as well. Students were asked to jot down the characters’ initial actions (who did
what), the effect of those actions on other characters and the feelings these actions
could evoke to the target audience. My students selected a character each and they
presented these graphic organisers on posters which were then hanged in the class.
Another written activity requited students to write a letter to a person who put

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pressure on them over personal beliefs and views. This type of activity was very well
received, as all students wrote personal accounts of people (family, significant others,
themselves) who put pressure on them and would not let them act as free as they
wanted. This was also a chance for students to step into Antigone’s character and re-
alize how she might have felt when she decided to proceed with the burial of her
brother Polyneices, disobeying thus the king’s decree. Students have had incorporat-
ed in their written responses key aspects of the play such as: the role of authority and
power, the conflict between youth and adults and, most notably, the consequences of
rigid behavior and one’s uncompromising self.

Prediction techniques

In between lessons and screenings, I would employ prediction techniques, a well-

known activity that requires students to think in authorial terms and consider what
would happen next, who would appear on stage and what they might say.Viewed this
way, students engage more actively in the reading of the text as they put forward their
own views and consider how the story might unfold based on their understanding of
the text up to that point (Seranis, 2000).

Antigones: Similarities and differences

Another extension exercise we used in the classroom was the contrast and com-
parison of Antigone by Sophocles to the plays by Anouilh and Brecht10. Students have
had the chance to see how the same theme is approached by different authors at dif-
ferent eras serving different purposes, identify similarities and differences, and realize
that in recent history individuals have been forced to choose between the law and
human rights, to choose between obedience to authority and remaining true to one’s
conscience and draw parallels to their own lives.

Small individual projects

Students also worked on individual projects based on their personal interests and
preferences. Most projects were then presented as posters in the classroom and were
hanged on the classroom walls. The projects included topics such as: Ancient Theaters
round the world (as an excellent PowerPoint presentation), Antigone in Art, Modern
performances of Antigone, Antigone vs Creon: Contrast and Comparison. These proj-
ects helped students develop their skills in searching for relevant information, col-
lecting and assessing material available on the Internet and in the (somewhat limit-
ed) school library.

10 Excerpts of these plays were to be found at the end of the their books.

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Word and Music

Finally, in an effort to facilitate the development of my students’ non-written

skills, I have asked them to select background music to accompany certain parts of
the film, music that would bring out the tone of the particular scene. This activity
implied that my students have understood the text in its subtlety, as they were able to
draw very interesting similes between music and text. For example, one boy opted
for the soundtrack music of the film Requiem for a Dream (2000) by Clint Mansell (a
film that he has seen in the past) to accompany the final scene of the play, where Cre-
on defeated and alone, deprived of his beloved ones, begs for a quick death as a sal-
vation to his sufferings. When I asked him about his choice, he told me that this par-
ticular piece of music sprang immediately in mind when I set the particular assign-
ment. When I further prompted him to justify his choice, he said that just like the
characters in the film, Creon was an ambitious man aiming at power and success but
he failed miserably due to his uncompromising self and stubbornness and his inabil-
ity to see the truth.

Student perceptions

Students were distributed a questionnaire at the end of their study. The questionnaire
included eight key close questions followed by an open-ended question where stu-
dents could write anything they wished to comment on. The key themes were as fol-
lows:
The film we watched in the class compared with just reading the play from the
book helped me:
1. To better understand the plot of the play
2. To better understand the characters in the play
3. To better understand the views of the era it was written in
4. To relate these views with my/our views nowadays
5. To better understand how Sophocles writes
6. To express my views orally in the class
7. To better understand the key issues of the play for me as a viewer
8. To enjoy the lessons more
All students filled in and returned the questionnaires.Analysing their answers once
could notice the following:
a. Students found that watching the film helped them understand the plot, because
they were able to see the characters interact with each other, capture the tension
of their facial expressions or their voice intonation. According to them, watching
made the text more vivid, more interesting and encouraged them to want to read
it more after they have seen the film.
b. Similar comments were expressed regarding the characters in the play: seeing

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them interact with each other, move round the stage, their gestures and facial ex-
pressions, voice intonation and non-verbal signs helped them understand more
what the characters really thought and what their real motives were.
c. Students had also noted down a number of key issues this play is dealing with:
how authority and power influences people, the single man’s authority as opposed
to democracy, the discrepancy between written and moral laws, the conflict be-
tween men and women, youth and adults, etc.
d. Regarding the way Sophocles conveys meaning, students found that watching this
particular film was different from the films they normally watch. Some mentioned
that the messages the playwright wishes to send to his audience are conveyed
though the Chorus (as a spokesperson of the author or the common sense) and
through the characters’ beliefs and words (for instance, Creon’s views on state or
citizenship). One student also wrote: Sophocles does not depict characters as in Holly-
wood films: characters have “two faces”, are both good and bad. Although it seems that Cre-
on is winning at the beginning, in the end he is the one who loses everything and anoth-
er added: Antigone and Creon are humans and they both have weaknesses. They are not
always either heroes or villains.There are moments that other sides of their characters are re-
vealed.
e. Students mentioned that they were able to see that the play applies to many situ-
ations nowadays. Thus, they said that even nowadays there is no true freedom of
expression, the power is concentrated in the hands of the few, women are still mis-
treated in some countries, whilst some counties are not really free, since others de-
cide for their future by invading and overpowering them (referring mainly to
President Bush’s invasion to Iraq).
f. Watching the film definitely helped students to put their views forward in class
discussions. In their own wording: (the film) helped me better express my views in the
class, because more ideas sprung in mind by watching the characters and I was more eager
to discuss things that had to do with Antigone or I would spontaneously ask questions or
give answers regarding the characters of the play or watching it I had the chance to see how
all characters react, their behavior etc.Thus, I could get a more informed picture of each char-
acter in the play.
g. Finally, all students agreed that this was a more enjoyable way of teaching and
learning literature. They found it more attractive that, besides watching the actors
performing on screen, they were able to discuss with each other their views and
any issues arising from the film. Another clear indication to me students enjoyed
the lessons was they did not want to move from their chairs when the bell would
ring for the school break! They wanted to carry on with the film or with the class
discussions, since they were fully involved in the process.

The above highlight the potential benefits of using film in the literature class-
room. However, in order to optimize these benefits, the teachers need to bear in mind
a number of necessary presuppositions, like the ones to follow:

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 Teaching Sophocles’ Antigone through Film: Challenges and Reflections

Time management/Technical arrangements

Time management is vital for the success of this approach.The teacher needs to make
sure that all necessary equipment is in place and in working condition. S/he needs to
have access to the room beforehand in order to prepare the equipment, darken the
room to increase screen visibility and make sure that the DVD or laptop is set to the
start of the film or the section s/he wants students to watch. Even if one goes for my
option to show students only 8-10 minutes of a film at a time, one must allow stu-
dents time to watch particular bits more than once, allow them time to reflect on
what they have seen and obviously time for any assignments the teachers have asked
students to do. The teacher also needs time to actually go back to the written text
and analyze it. I have planned this from the beginning of the school year, teaching
one 90 minute session every fortnight to my students and I was fortunate enough
that this could be arranged within the school timetable. I was also fortunate, that, al-
though we were a small school, we were equipped with a data projector and a school
laptop connected with wireless access to the internet, facilities that some teachers
might lack in order to use films in their lessons.

Limitations of the selected film

It was made clear to my students that this viewing was just an interpretation of the
play, not the right interpretation. They should, therefore, stand as critical viewers to-
wards the film and question the directors’ qualities, discuss how the written word is
transformed into a visual image or comment on the actors’ ability to incarnate the
characters of the play.Therefore, in order to help my students visualise the play in dif-
ferent ways, I spent a two-hour slot showing them a 1991 performance of Antigone
by the Greek National Theatre at the ancient theatre of Epidaurus which has been
recorded with amateur camera. Although the sound and image were not of the high-
est quality, I wanted my students to experience a different interpretation of the play
and compare it to the one who have used as a case study for the past few months.
Students were able to pinpoint the obvious differences, such as the difference in cos-
tumes, music, setting and place. Their remarks, however, focused on more subtle qual-
ities dealing with directing choices (for example how Antigone confronts Creon on
stage: in the film Antigone stands in front of Creon with her head down, whereas in
the theatrical performance Antigone is thrown on the ground, not facing Creon), dif-
ferences in acting and director guidance. This enabled them to understand the varied
possibilities of turning a literary work into a visual ‘text’ and possibly understand the
different ‘readings’ a single text can have based on the readers’ experiences and ex-
pectations.

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 Panos Seranis

Using suitable activities to develop student responses

As mentioned above, a diverse set of activities was employed to encourage students’

initial reactions to the film and to help them deepen and sharpen their responses.
These activities are important elements of the quest for literature understanding, as
they facilitate students’ reading processes, provide them with yardsticks of textual un-
derstanding and help them create meaning for themselves.

Conclusions

Teaching film as literature, in a structured and planned way, can trigger some kind of
response from every student. An array of teaching and learning strategies can then be
employed to explore, develop, strengthen and promote student responses to film and
literature. Viewed this way, students will be active and critical shareholders of the
teaching-learning process. When students are active participants, motivated and en-
gaged in their learning, they are more likely to reflect on their learning, develop their
critical thinking, understand the text in ways they previously could not, bring new
perspectives to the text and make connections of the literature taught with their own
lives. Building on their existing learning schemata and enriched literary experience,
by engaging into both the written and the visual world, can help students bring the
classical texts alive in the classroom.

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