Postures of Refusal: From Antigone to Kaepernick

How do the postures of our bodies communicate citizens’ dissidence or conformity, non-compliance or care? When Kaepernick kneels, Black Lives Matter lie down in the streets, soldiers stand at attention, and we all speak of moral fortitude as having a spine or showing spine, are these mere dramatizations and harmless metaphors? Or might they tell us something about the gendering of moral conscience? This talk will look at the significance of posture of obedience and disobedience in a variety of texts, from Sophocles’ Antigone” to Euripides’  “Bacchae,” from speeches/interviews by Muhammad Ali to photographs of Colin Kaepernick.