Why was Derrida reading Plato as students stormed the Sorbonne in May '68? Why was Foucault writing about Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus while fighting for the rights of prisoners with Vidal-Naquet? What has Vernant the resistance fighter to do with Vernant theorist of the ancient polis? This book investigates how post-war France turned to ancient Greece to formulate a new interrogation of the political. It investigates why a group of highly influential Parisian thinkers rediscovered ancient Athens to debate the role of political subjectivity and ethical choice in the life of the modern citizen. ... More

Why was Derrida reading Plato as students stormed the Sorbonne in May '68? Why was Foucault writing about Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus while fighting for the rights of prisoners with Vidal-Naquet? What has Vernant the resistance fighter to do with Vernant theorist of the ancient polis? This book investigates how post-war France turned to ancient Greece to formulate a new interrogation of the political. It investigates why a group of highly influential Parisian thinkers rediscovered ancient Athens to debate the role of political subjectivity and ethical choice in the life of the modern citizen. The book explores the ways in which the writings of the ancient Greeks played a decisive part in shaping the intellectual projects of structuralism and post-structuralism — arguably the most significant currents of thought of the post-war era. The authors investigated, including Lacan, Derrida, Foucault, Irigaray, and Vernant, have had an incalculable influence on the direction of classical studies over the last thirty years, but classicists have yet to give due attention to the crucial role of the ancient world in the development of their philosophy.