Abstract
The first part of the article deals with the national myths of Canada. It demonstrates that the long-time supposed lack of myths in Canada may itself be regarded as a myth. After presenting useful meanings of the term myth, the intersections of myth/mythology and gender are considered, both in Canadian culture and in Greek mythology. Linking Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey—the canonized beginnings of Western literature and their foundation on ancient myth—with Canadian culture, Margaret Atwood’s works and their treatment of ancient and social myths are then focussed on, particularly her revisionist rewriting of Homer’s Odyssey in her novel The Penelopiad (2005). This women-centered rewriting of the originally male-dominated story starts from two issues: what led to the hanging of the 12 maids, and what was Penelope really up to? Among the results are an intriguing re-conception of the original main characters, an upgrading of female domestic life, and a debunking not only of Odysseus and his supposedly heroic deeds but also of the authority of ancient myths where precarious not least concerning their conception of gender and gender relations.
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial
- Articles
- The Horrors of the Oriental Space and Language in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Shadow over Innsmouth”
- Myth and Intersections of Myth and Gender in Canadian Culture: Margaret Atwood’s Revision of the Odyssey in The Penelopiad
- The Heroic Programme of Sherlock
- Freud by Numbers? – Hysteria and Transgenerational Haunting in Patrick McGrath’s Constance (2013)
- Reading Strategies and Impossible Worlds in Fiction: With Reference to Lincoln in the Bardo
- Book Reviews
- Black Print Unbound: The Christian Recorder, African American Literature, and Periodical Culture
- Creating Realities: Business as a Motif in American Fiction, 1865–1929
- Work in Progress: Curatorial Labor in Twenty-First-Century American Fiction
- Books Received
- Books Received
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial
- Articles
- The Horrors of the Oriental Space and Language in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Shadow over Innsmouth”
- Myth and Intersections of Myth and Gender in Canadian Culture: Margaret Atwood’s Revision of the Odyssey in The Penelopiad
- The Heroic Programme of Sherlock
- Freud by Numbers? – Hysteria and Transgenerational Haunting in Patrick McGrath’s Constance (2013)
- Reading Strategies and Impossible Worlds in Fiction: With Reference to Lincoln in the Bardo
- Book Reviews
- Black Print Unbound: The Christian Recorder, African American Literature, and Periodical Culture
- Creating Realities: Business as a Motif in American Fiction, 1865–1929
- Work in Progress: Curatorial Labor in Twenty-First-Century American Fiction
- Books Received
- Books Received