There has been a remarkable renaissance of classical myth in the revisionist writings of Anglophone women authors during the past decade. What these revisionist female mythmakers share is a concern with women’s experiences, stories, and perspectives. The term “myth” is often reduced to signifying oppressive ideologies or simply "false beliefs." However, myth also constitutes a way of dealing and coping with the world that one inhabits through both the perpetuation and the correction of limiting socio-cultural beliefs, values, and ideologies. For marginalized groups in particular, revisionist mythmaking has been a means to seize the authoritative language of the dominant group and re-envision how one knows oneself and the world that one inhabits.
Some of the guiding questions of our course will be as follows: What contemporary issues and concerns do the stories respond to that continue to make ancient myth relevant? And in what ways do these issues and concerns throw light on the figures whose stories we think we already know from ancient myth? In what ways do these revisionist myths converse with, mock, and reject male-authored re-writings of classical myth? What outlooks do the stories and their updated versions of myth offer? In our course, we will try to answer these questions, focusing on the figures of Penelope and her twelve maids, Medusa and Athena, and Medea.
Please purchase and read the following novels (they are listed in the order in which we will discuss them; there is no preferred edition):
Margaret Atwood. The Penelopiad. 2005.
Natalie Haynes. Stone Blind. 2022.
Jesmyn Ward. Salvage the Bones. 2011.