Myth-Taken Identity

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Myth-Taken Identity:

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources (cont'd)

Atwood, Margaret. The Penelopiad. New York: Canongate, 2005.

Duffy, Carol Ann. “Circe.” The World's Wife. Faber and Faber, 2000, pp. 47-48.

---. “Demeter.” The World's Wife. Faber and Faber, 2000, pp. 76.

---. “Eurydice.” The World's Wife. Faber and Faber, 2000, pp. 58-62.

---. “Medusa.” The World's Wife. Faber and Faber, 2000, pp. 40-41.

---. “Mrs. Beast.” The World's Wife. Faber and Faber, 2000, pp. 72-75.

---. “Mrs. Icarus.” The World's Wife. Faber and Faber, 2000, pp. 54.

---. “Mrs. Midas.” The World's Wife. Faber and Faber, 2000, pp. 11-13

---. “Mrs. Sisyphus.” The World's Wife. Faber and Faber, 2000, pp. 21-22.

---. “Penelope.” The World's Wife. Faber and Faber, 2000, pp. 70-71.

---. “Pygmalion’s Bride.” The World's Wife. Faber and Faber, 2000, pp. 51-52.

• Fletcher, Judith. "Women's Space and Wingless Words in The Odyssey." Phoenix, vol. 62, no. 1/2, 2008, pp. 77-91. JSTOR. Accessed 07 Sept. 2016.
• Fulkerson, Laurel. "Epic Ways of Killing a Woman: Gender and Transgression in ‘Odyssey’" The Classical Journal vol. 94, no. 4, 2002, pp. 335-350. JSTOR. Accessed 08 Nov. 2016.
• Heitman, Richard. Taking Her Seriously: Penelope & The Plot of Homer's Odyssey. U of Michigan, 2005.
• Holownia, Olga. "'Well, Let Me Tell You Now': The Dramatic Monologue Of The World's Wife." Poetry and Voice: A Book of Essays. Cambridge Scholars, 2012, pp. 62-75. MLA International Bibliography. Accessed 7 Nov. 2016
• Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. Viking, 1996.
• Jung, Susanne. "A Chorus Line": Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad At The Crossroads Of Narrative, Poetic And Dramatic Genres." Connotations: A Journal For Critical Debate vol. 24, no. 1, 2014, pp. 41-62. Supplemental Index. Accessed 7 Nov. 2016.
• Magro, Karen. "Gender Matters: Revisiting Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale And The Penelopiad Through The Lens Of Social Justice." Notes On American Literature, vol. 22, 2013, pp. 20-28. EBSCOhost. Accessed 7 Nov. 2016.
• Ostriker, Alicia. Stealing the Language: The Emergence of Women's Poetry in America. Women's Press, 1987.

• Rich, Adrienne. "When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision." College English vol. 34, no. 1, 1972, pp. 18-30. JSTOR. Accessed 14 Sept. 2016.
• Rūta, Šlapkauskaitė. "Postmodern Voices From Beyond: Negotiating With The Dead In Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad." Literatura, vol. 49, no. 5, 2007, pp. 138-146. Directory of Open Access Journals. Accessed 7 Nov. 2016.
• Shastri, Sudha. "Revisi(Ti)Ng The Past: Feminist Concerns In Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad." Sites of Female Terror: En Torno a la Mujer y el Terror.` Aranzadi, 2008, pp. 141-149. MLA International Bibliography. Accessed 7 Nov. 2016.
• Suzuki, Mihoko. "Rewriting the 'Odyssey' in the Twenty-First Century: Mary Zimmerman's 'Odyssey' and Margaret Atwood's 'Penelopiad'." College Literature, vol. 34, no. 2, 2007, pp. 263-278. JSTOR. Accessed 7 Nov. 2016.
• Wainwright, Jeffrey. "Female Metamorphoses: Carol Ann Duffy's Ovid." The Poetry of Carol Ann Duffy: 'Choosing Tough Words'. Manchester UP, 2003, pp. 47-55.MLA International Bibliography. Accessed 7 Nov. 2016.
• Walker, Alice. "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: The Creativity of Black Women in the South." In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983.

Secondary Sources

• Braund, Susanna. "'We're Here Too, The Ones Without Names' A Study of Female Voices as Imagined by Margaret Atwood, Carol Ann Duffy, and Marguerite Yourcenar." Classical Receptions Journal, vol. 4, no. 2, 2012, pp. 190-208. DiscoverRoux. Accessed 21 Sept. 2016.
• Doniger, Wendy, and Howard Eilberg-Schwartz. Off With Her Head: The Denial Of Women's Identity In Myth, Religion, And Culture. University of California Press, 1995. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Accessed Sept. 2016.

Images Cited (cont'd)

Images Cited

Images Cited (cont'd)

• Waterhouse, John Williams. “Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses.” 1891, Gallery Oldham, Oldham. John Williams Waterhouse, http://www.jwwaterhouse.com/view.cfm?recordid=62. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
• ---. “Penelope and the Suitors.” 1912. Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen. John Williams Waterhouse, http://www.jwwaterhouse.com/view.cfm?recordid=36. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
• ---. “The Siren”. 1900. JW Waterhouse, http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/pictures/siren-1900/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
• “The World’s Wife Cover.” Picador. www.picador.com/books/the-world-s-wife. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.

Feminist Revisionist Mythology in

The Penelopiad and The World's Wife

• “And the Villain Still Pursues Her.” ca. 1900. Wikimedia Commons. www.commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VictorianPostcard.jpg. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
• Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi. “Medusa”. 1598. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Wikimedia Commons, www.commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michelangelo_Merisi_da_Caravaggio_-_Medusa.png. Accessed 18 Nov. 2016.
• “Euryclea Discovers Ulysses.” The Odyssey. www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/odyssey/odtel03.htm#. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016
• Gérôme, Jean-Léon. “Truth Coming Out of Her Well to Shame Mankind”. 1896. Private Collection. ArtsHeaven, www.artsheaven.com/jean-leon-gerome-truth-coming-out-of-her-well-to-shame-mankind.html. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
• ---. “Pygmalion and Galatea.” ca. 1890. Metropolitan Museum, New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436483. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
• “Greek God Coloring Pages Template.” Color Kiddo. www.colorkiddo.com/online-coloring.php?coloringid=5296. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
• “The Greek Muses.” The Coaching Muse. www.thecoachingmuse.com.au/about-us/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016
• “Greek Women.” Pixabay. www.pixabay.com/en/greek-people-woman-ancient-toga-37517/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.

• “Hygieia Clip Art.” Deluxe Vectors. http://www.deluxevectors.com/vector/hygieia-clip-art.html. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
• Kratzenstein, Christian Gottlieb. “Orpheus and Eurydice”. 1806. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. Wikimedia Commons. www.commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kratzenstein_orpheus.jpg. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
• Neugebauer, Annie. “Literary Canon”. Annie Neugebauer. 29 Jan. 2013, www.annieneugebauer.com/2013/01/29/what-non-writers-picture-when-writers-say/untitled5/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2016.
• “Part 17 Killing Suitor and Couple Reunited.” Youtube, uploaded by Janelle Coady, 04 Jan. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3FRyQZ5-9U&t=95s. Accessed 18 Nov. 2016.
• “The Penelopiad Cover.” Biblioklept. www.biblioklept.org/2009/04/13/the-penelopiad-margaret-atwood/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
• Poynter, Edward. “Orpheus and Eurydice”. 1862. Wikimedia Commons. www.commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edward_Poynter_-_Orpheus_and_Eurydice.jpg. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
• Raoux, Jean. “Orpheus and Eurydice”. ca.1709. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/638/jean-raoux-orpheus-and-eurydice-french-about-1709/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
• “Tombstones.” Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/magalie123/cemetery-tombstone/. Accessed Nov. 19, 2016.

Suggested Reading

• Atwood, Margaret. Selected Poems, 1965-1975. Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
• Duffy, Carol Ann. Feminine Gospels. Faber and Faber, 2003.
• Duyn, Mona Van. If It Be Not I: Collected Poems, 1959-1982. Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
• Glück, Louise. Meadowlands. Ecco, 1996.
• Morrison, Toni. Desdemona. Oberon, 2012.
• Namjoshi, Suniti. Feminist Fables. Spinifex Press, 1993.
• Rich, Adrienne. Diving Into The Wreck; Poems, 1971-1972. Norton, 1973.

"Eurydice" : Not Your Muse, Orpheus

(Poynter)

A Senior Seminar by Haley Taylor

The Penelopiad

About Her OWN SON

About Her Servant Girls

“At that moment I wished there would be another Trojan War so I could send him off to it and get him out of my hair” (Atwood 170)

“In the flickering light of the torches our daylight faces were softened and changed, and our daylight manners. We were almost like sisters” (Atwood 114)

Relationship to the "Truth"

Conclusion!

Girls to the Front:

Decentering the Male Perspective

• Rejects "objective truth" and dismantles meta-narratives

• Contradictions not just to source material but within the texts themselves

• Prioritizes conflicting voices over establishing objectivity

• Question of Audience

("Truth Coming Out Of Her Well to Shame Mankind")

• Acknowledge and address flaws in our literary history

• Empowering young readers to see themselves in these great works

So, what were Homer and Ovid and all those guys saying about women?

Introduction and Thesis

Poetic (In)Justice

“Odysseus wanted to talk, and as he was an excellent raconteur I was happy to listen. I think this is what he valued most in me: my ability to appreciate his stories” (Atwood 45)

“The two of us were – by our own admission – proficient and shameless liars of long standing. It’s a wonder either one of us believed a word the other said.

But we did.

Or so we told each other” (Atwood 173).

(“Penelope and the Suitors”)

• Women's voices are DANGEROUS and SCARY

• Voice is tied to
• morality and sexuality

(Caravaggio)

(“Pygmalion and Galatea”)

From Object to Subject: Rejecting the role of "Muse"

Within their respective texts, Margaret Atwood and Carol Ann Duffy use feminist revisionist mythology to reclaim women’s voices that classical mythology mistreated or left out altogether. In doing so, their writings provide a form of literary justice to the women left out of Western literary history and suggest a new way of approaching canonical texts.

Live Fast, Die Young, Bad Girls Do It well

Storytelling From Beyond the Grave

• In “Eurydice”, the underworld is “a place where language stopped, / a black full stop, a black hole / where words had to come to an end” (“Eurydice” 4-6). As such, free from Orpheus’ words, the afterlife is a haven for Eurydice: “in fact, girls, I’d rather be dead”.

• In The Penelopiad, the only thing the dead bring with them to is the “sacks of words- words you’ve spoken, words you’ve heard, words that have been said about you” (Atwood 1).

• 'Muse' as objectification/ stealing art from women

• “Separate beds. In fact, I put a chair against my door, / near petrified", "I feared his honeyed embrace, / the kiss that would turn my lips into a work of art”

("Mrs. Midas 37-38, 41-42)

("Tombstones")

Duffy and Atwood, Reclaiming those Voices

“We’re the serving girls, we’re here to serve you. We’re here to serve you right. We’ll never leave you, we’ll stick to you like your shadow, soft and relentless as glue. Pretty maids, all in a row” (Atwood 193)

• The power of narration

• Duffy's dramatic monologues

And what did I amount to, once the official version gained ground? An edifying legend/ A stick used to beat other women with. Why couldn’t they be as considerate, as trustworthy, as all-suffering as I had been? That was the line they took, the singers, the yarn-spinners… Now that all the others have run out of air, it’s my turn to do a little story-making. I owe it to myself” (Atwood 2-4)

("The Greek Muses")

Odysseus & Telemachus: What Great Guys

("The Siren")

(“Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses”)

• “Hack them with your swords, slash out all their lives—/ blot out of their minds the joys of love they relished / under the suitors’ bodies, rutting on the sly!” (Homer XXII.462- 470)

• “No clean death for the likes of them, by god! /Not from me—they showered abuse on my head, / my mother’s too! You sluts—the suitors’ whores!” (Homer XXII.487-490)

'cuz you're a good girl and you know it

Overview of Primary Texts!

• The silent, serviceable voices of

Penelope and Eurycleia

Feminist Revisionist Mythology

The Forgotten Maids

(“The World’s Wife Cover")

("The Penelopiad Cover")

• A bit of a mouthful
• Asking new questions of old texts
• Alicia Ostriker's defining characteristics

• Film adaptations and their need for a sympathetic Odysseus

• Academia's blind eye to the maids

• Laurel Fulkerson’s "Epic Ways of Killing a Woman: Gender and Transgression in ‘Odyssey’”

(“Greek Women”)

("Tombstones")

(“Greek God Coloring Pages Template”)

The Odyssey (1997)

(Neugebauer)

(“Part 17 Killing Suitor and Couple Reunited")

(“Hygieia Clip Art”)