Duty, gender, family. As they consider the demands of social, legal, political, cultural, religious, etc., obligation (or the absence thereof), figures in Apology, Crito, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone reckon also with the demands of familial, domestic, household, etc., obligation (or the absence thereof). They reckon with the question of how these two sets of demands—of one’s duty to society and one’s duty to family—intersect, parallel, trump, amplify, expose the fiction of, coincide with, rival, etc., one another. These figures’ attitudes toward public citizenship (including leadership) and private kinship are furthermore often framed in terms of their views about the gender of family roles (or views of the ways in which family roles are gendered)—mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, fathers, sons, brothers, husbands—and how these views are defined by (or mythologized according to) ideas of (or misconceptions about) authority, responsibility, hierarchy, freedom, violence, nurture, attachment, abandonment, rebellion, inheritance/legacy, nature, emotion, the body, etc. Choose ONE of these texts and write an essay in which you analyze how ONE• figure in this text understands (discusses, questions, illustrates, enacts, rejects, complicates, etc.) the concept of duty (including the extent to which this concept is gendered), and its relation to the concept of family. Using your analysis of this text, make a normative argument in which you define duty (gendered or not) and its relation (or lack of relation) to (the) family, and explain the broader, socially relevant significance of your argument. [*Exception: If you are analyzing Oedipus’s parents (whichever set of parents), you may consider both parents as ONE figure.] The following are questions for you to ponder, not questions you are required to answer. What is (a) family? To what extent is it a human, social/cultural construction versus a natural, animal/biological fact? Is “blood” an inherent aspect of family by definition? Is “love” (however defined) an inherent aspect of family by definition? What does it mean to be a mother, father, parent, daughter, son, child, sister, brother, sibling, woman, man, person? To what extent do these roles require (or assume, expect, impose, demand) the carrying-out of certain functions? To what extent do these roles require (or assume, expect, impose, demand) certain personality traits (be they genuine or affected)? To what extent are these roles inherently true and sincere, or are there elements of performance, even masquerade? To what extent are these roles gendered, and how would/does such gendering influence the performance of those roles? Might “love” or “blood” themselves be gendered concepts? What is duty/obligation? Does it influence an individual’s role in a family, and does it influence a family’s power to shape an individual—and if so, how? Should it, or should it not? How might (the concept of) duty to family itselfbe gendered? Does the meaning of gender influence the meaning of obligation, and if so, how? Is family obligation different from other forms of obligation (legal, political, religious, etc.)—and if so, how? Does obligation take different forms when viewed through the lens of “matemity,” “paternity,” “sisterhood,” “brotherhood,” etc.? What is the role of power (hierarchy, equality, oppression, identity, individuality, conformity, violence, altruism, revenge, forgiveness, rejection, acceptance, resentment, compromise, sacrifice, guilt, desert, conditionality vs. unconditionality, etc.) in duty (or absence of duty) and family?
