DECOLONIZING THE CLASSICS CURRICULUM IN SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES WITH EURIPIDES’ HIPPOLYTUS

Abstract

In this article, the author argues that reading Euripides’ Hippolytuswith a class of non-Classics students, during nation-wide studentprotests at one of South Africa’s universities in 2016, contributedmore to the decolonization of the Humanities curriculum than thecourse’s focus on how the discipline of Classics was (and is) used toentrench eurocentric cultural hegemony. In tackling the ‘rapeculture’, which infests many of our campuses, and its roots infamilial psycho-sexual dynamics, which could result in the kinds ofsexual repression, sexual anxiety and rampant misogyny, whichseem to characterize campus ‘rape culture’, the author argues that areturn to psychoanalytic interpretations of Euripides’ fine play couldhelp classicists refine what ‘decolonization’ of the Classicscurriculum means in practice.