Limite,trasgressione e responsabilità:la tragedia antica e le sue riscritture moderne della tragedia antica

The essay is part of a research project on Justice and Literature with the participation of jurists and scholars. The essay examines the theme of ‘responsibility’ within theatre, a place of ‘responsible word’ among the arts, and particularly in tragedy. It explores how the theme of responsibility developed in some classic and modern plays in relation also to the context of ideological change of the said concept. The texts examined are Antigone by Sophocles, Mourning becomes Electra by O’Neill, Antigonemodell by Brecht, Pilade by Pasolini and Endgame by Beckett. The essay ends by underling the prophetic force of Beckett’s play in identifying and warning about the drift of responsibility in modernity.