Reading Women's Writing

  Cox, F., & Theodorakopoulos, E. (Eds.). (2019). Homer's Daughters: Women's Responses to Homer in the Twentieth Century and Beyond . Oxford University Press. This collection of essays examines how women writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, form various background and locales, have responded to, reimagined, and rewritten the Homeric epics. The backgrounds of these authors and the genres they employ—memoir, poetry, children’s literature, rap, novels—testify to the growing appeal of Homeric texts, and their lasting influence. The treatments addressed range from surrealism to successive waves of feminism to cimaginative explorations of the future, examining Homer’s influence in a multitude of different literary and political movements, and the essays in this volume bring diverse critical approaches to the work. Authors include: H.D., Elizabeth Cook , Christa Wolf, Margaret Atwood, Alice Oswald , Adèle Geras , and Kate Tempest. It ends with Emily Wilson on her n

  Karanika, A. (2014). Voices at Work: Women, Performance and Labor in Ancient Greece. Johns Hopkins University Press. Andromache Karanika's Voices at Work explores the intricate connections between ancient Greek poetry, the female poetic voice, and women's labour practices. The poetic voice is intricately intertwined to domestic chores and agricultural labour, such as weaving and storytelling. Karanika identifies female poetic expression and performance in ancient Greek poetry, revealing case studies like Calypso and Circe's weaving and Odyssey 6's washing scene. By revealing the words of women who informed the oral tradition, Karanika gives a voice to silence and sheds light on the complex relationships between ancient Greek poetry and women's labour. Karanika's research expands on Lardinois and McClure's Making Silence Speak (2001), while introducing a theoretical framework to a historical and anthropological approach. She underscores the significance

  Hall, E. (2008). The Return of Ulysses: A Cultural History of Homer's Odyssey . Johns Hopkins University Press. Edith Hall’s book tracks the influence of the ideas of the Odyssey on a range of institutions and practices in the Arts. In addressing the writings of the female characters from the epic, she notes that the important ideas in the most recent writings are ‘private space, weaving and quest’ (p. 121-2). She cites the importance of Carolyn Heilbrun’s What Was Penelope Unweaving? (Heilbrun, 1990). Heilbrun’s essay proposes Penelope’s weaving and unweaving as drafting possible futures for her story.   Hall and Heilbrun encourage women to write their own stories using their own forms. Together, both writers encourage others to challenge the narratives by creating new fictions for themselves. Penelope thus becomes an emblem of this feminist project.   Hall’s observed threads of ‘private space, weaving and quest’ are worth considering in other rewritings.

  Wilson, E. (2017). The Odyssey (Homer) . W. W. Norton & Company. Caroline Alexander wrote a translation of the Iliad in 2015. However, it did not receive the public attention garnered by Emily Wilson whose translation of the Odyssey was published in 2017. Wilson wrote a long introduction explaining her rationale for her approach to the translation and its importance. She was widely interviewed and travelled to promote her book.  She says in the introduction, and in her article in Homer’s Daughters (2019), that her approach to the translation is feminist. She felt a responsibility to provide a reliable version of Homer’s text to readers who have no Greek without continuing the assumptions about sex and gender embodied in male translations. She wanted to explore the fissures within the text itself, the open elements since there are points within the Odyssey where the text seems to challenge or undermine its own set of values; there are ambiguities. In her article she presents

 Charlotte Higgins. Greek Myths: A New Retelling . (United Kingdom: Penguin Random House, 2021).  Higgins is a classicist and works as cultural editor for The Guardian. Her book is a collection of reinterpreted versions of classical Greek myths. This book provides a feminist perspective on these stories and reinterprets them in a way that challenges patriarchal norms and values. The framework (used like a loom is a framework) is that the women tell these stories through their weavings. It is a collection of ekphrasis.  I had high expectations but enjoyed the attempt at the concept rather than the realisation of the project. She understands the stories, and takes permission from Ovid and also Catullus, to create such a framework, however, it was disappointingly flat. Much like the retellings in other books (children’s versions, the books of Stephen Fry) just telling the plots is only part of the point. The rest of the point is how the ancient stories were told. I’m interested in early u

 Natalie Haynes. Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths. (United Kingdom: Picador, 2020).  In her introduction, Haynes argues that in the contemporary era, we have ‘made space in our storytelling to rediscover women who have been lost or forgotten. ‘They are not villains, victims, wives and monsters: they are people’ (p. 3). The text itself is dedicated to revisiting the women from Greek myth beyond their symbolic, essentialised roles.  Haynes retells the story of Pandora, Jocasta, Helen, Medusa, the Amazons, Clytemnestra, Eurydice, Phaedra, Medea, and Penelope. This book tracks the stories of these female characters from ancient sources, including pictorial representations as well as ancient literature, and explores the ways their narratives have been used to perpetuate negative stereotypes of women. The book applies a critical approach to the way received understandings of the stories of these characters have shifted according to mistranslations, misinterpretations, socio-political

 Josephine Balmer. Classical Women Poets . (United Kingdom: Bloodaxe Books, 1996).  Balmer not only translates the collection of poems by female poets from ancient Greece and Rome but also, excitingly for me, relates the content to second-wave women poets. She reinforces the importance of poets naming themselves in song. Like Gregory Nagy says, that is what a hero is, one whose glory is celebrated in song. That confers immortality.  The Greek poets include Sappho, Corinna, Telesilla, Praxilla, Erinna, Moero, Anyte, Hedyle, Nossis, and Melinno, as well as Latin women writers. Of course, most of what has survived are fragments. The women wrote lyrics to be sung, both at communal events and privately, including laments, hymns, and epigrams. Balmer shows the artistry of the poets, their agility at wordplay, their subversion of Homer's epigrams and imagery, rhythm, alliteration, and other sound effects. They apply the devices of Homer, for example, to domestic issues in women’s lives, t

 Jane McIntosh Snyder. The Woman and the Lyre: Women Writers in Classical Greece and Rome . (USA: Southern Illinois University, 1989). T his is a study of women and their role in the development of ancient Greek poetry, as well as translations of the ancient works. This book examines the ways women expressed themselves and their experiences, and the impact of this on the development of Greek poetry and literary form.  In the Introduction, Sandra M. Gilbert uses the term ad feminam explaining that feminist criticism asks a series of questions to the woman both as the writer and reader of texts. Snappily, she asks: ‘What is the relationship between gender and genre, between sexuality and textuality?’ (p. ix). Snyder, in the Preface, hopes readers can ‘hear at last the echoes of women’s voices speaking to us through the silence of two millennia’ (p. xii). Both acknowledge the patriarchal construction of the canon and that women’s writing has been judged by men according to socially impos

 Mary Leftowitz. Women in Greek Myth . (United Kingdom: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd, 1986).  As a feminist, Lefkowitz is measured and cautious in her claims. Her book is a study of the representation of women in Greek myth and how they were portrayed in the literary and cultural narratives of ancient Greece.  She dispels the popular second-wave idea that there were ancient matriarchal societies. Greek myth, she says, portrays marriage and motherhood as the conditions most women desire, but also warns of women's ability to deceive men and betray their trust. For real Greek women, virginity was not much of an option since there were dangers in having no male protector and no one to care for you in old age. There were no successful communities of women apart from men or conditions in which women dominated over the other members of society, and Greek men may not have been so concerned with repressing women as with protecting them. She offers Helen as an example of an intelligent wom

 Conjured by Mary Daly in Cahoots with Jane Caputi. Webster’s First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language . (USA: Beacon Press, 1987).  This text was mentioned by my supervisor at a conference presentation, so I bought the book. It is a humorous and insightful work that critiques patriarchal language and the ways it has been used to oppress women. This book also explores the power of language and the ways women can use it to reclaim their voices and challenge dominant cultural narratives. It is a playful rewriting of feminist language and history as a dictionary and encyclopaedia creating or revising etymologies. A webster is a weaving, and here the writers are weavers of words as well as women’s culture. It is described as a feminist conceptual engineering project. It changes meaning, spelling (as spells), and contexts, and reclaims slurs.

 Lisa Tuttle. Encyclopedia of Feminism . (United Kingdom: Arrow Books Ltd, 1987).  This is a comprehensive reference work that provides information on various aspects of feminism and its impact on various fields, including literature and theatre. There is much to explore here. It has introduced me to women, publications, and collectives about whom I was not previously aware.  The women writers to follow up include: Alta, Jane Anger, Susan Griffin, June Jordan, Alison Fell, Judy Grahn, Marlyn Hacker, Judith Kazantzis, Audre Lord, Lyn Lifshin, Robin Morgan, Pat Parker, Marge Piercy, Adrienne Rich, and Alice Walker. Alta started Shameless Hussy Press (1969 - 1989). She wrote poetry collections ( Letters to Women - 1970, Burn This and Memorise Yourself - 1971, No Visible Means of Support - 1972, Momma: A Start on All the Untold Stories - 1974, I Am Not a Practicing Angel - 1975) and started an art gallery. I am particularly interested in the work of May Swenson, who was an American poet

 Alicia Ostriker. Writing Like a Woman . (USA: The University of Michigan Press, 1983).  Within the Poets on Poetry series, this is a collection of essays that explore the experiences of women writers and the way they use language to express their perspectives. This book also discusses the importance of female voices in literature and the ways in which women writers have contributed to the development of poetry. She includes chapters on H.D., Syliva Plath, Anne Sexton, May Swenson, and Adrienne Rich, as well as two essays initially delivered as lectures, summarised here.  ‘I Make My Psyche From My Need’:  Ostriker argues that when a woman rewrites an ancient myth, she has two motives in mind: to be taken seriously as a writer and to get at something deep in herself. In addition, she may have a third motive: to release an imprisoned meaning and to 'see' what was present but unseen by others.  ‘A Wild Surmise: Motherhood & Poetry’:  Ostriker’s poem ‘Once More out of Darkness’

 Ellen Moers. Literary Women: The Great Writers . (USA: Doubleday, 1976).  This is a study exploring the lives and works of notable female writers from the 18th and 19th centuries. The book focuses on the Gothic novel and its relationship to the female experience. This book highlights the difficulties faced by women writers in the past, and the ways they used their writing to challenge traditional sex-based roles. Some of the women writers mentioned in the book include: Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Christina Rossetti, Virginia Woolf, Mary Wollstonecraft, George Sand, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  It is fascinating to learn that many women writers corresponded with each other, admiring and encouraging each other’s work.

 Marina Carr. Girl on an Altar . (United Kingdom: Faber and Faber, 2022).  The play was performed at the Kiln Theatre, London, in May 2022. The play script reads like a radio play, as characters describe what they are doing rather than interacting with each other. I’m curious about how it is staged to make it theatrical. Of interest is Clytemnestra saying to Agamemnon about his sacrifice of Hecuba’s daughter before leaving Troy:  It’s becoming a habit. Soon it’ll be normal and before you can turn round it’ll be law. Before it was ring giving, ring taking, ships of gold and ships of spices, poets and harpists in a banquet hall. And if sacrifice was wanted it was a calf or a deer. Now it’s girls. The blood of spotless girls these new gods want. What is this terrible new pact among men? I no longer know this man they call Zeus Atrides Agamemnon (p. 35).  Agamemnon stays alive on his return to Mycenae for some time, taking Cassandra as his wife and dismissing Clytemnestra to the slave quar

 Anaïs Mitchell. Hadestown. (Started development 2006, on Broadway 2019 - now)  Anaïs Mitchell. Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown . (USA: Penguin Random House, 2020).  The musical presents the story of Hades and Persephone as a love story. She becomes bored in the underworld, so she runs a speakeasy where she sells contraband: wind, sky, sun, and leaves, which is a clever idea. They have an interest in nurturing their love. Intersecting is the love story of Orpheus and Eurydice. He is a dreamy singer/songwriter; she is a tough orphan living in poverty. She signs into Hadestown to escape poverty; there is no snake in this version. Orpheus’s song is a remnant of Hades’ song, which is returned to him and restores the balance in nature.  Hermes is the narrator. The Fates act like Furies or a chorus.  There are motifs of industrialisation, capitalism, environmental degradation, building a wall to maintain freedom (an allusion to Trump’s proposed wall), reference to unionisation, a

 Jermyn Street Theatre. 15 Heroines: The War/The Desert/The Labyrinth: 15 Monologues Adapted from Ovid. (United Kingdom: Nick Hern Books, 2021).  London theatre company, Jermyn Street Theatre, commissioned fifteen writers to rewrite new expressions of Ovid’s Heroides as dramatic monologues, with varying success, in my opinion. The show was divided into three themes: The War, The Desert, and The Labyrinth. According to my assessment from reading the playscript, the best are: Briseis as a serial murderess, removing her wedding dress after marrying and killing Achilles, as she escapes her crimes; Deianira as the wife of a famous soccer player, a WAG with revenge on her mind; and Ariadne in Naxos riffing on associations with string, holding the ball of string Theseus left by her while she was sleeping, and cursing him to forget to change the colour of the sails thereby causing his father’s death.  Performed in November 2020, with an online as well as in-house broadcast, the production was

  Nina MacLaughlin. Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung . (USA: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2019).  This rewrite is better than I had expected. Each story is told using a different form, mostly first person, some dialogue, or third person, mostly set in the ancient past but including modern references, so creating the impression of everywhen. More than thirty stories create the cumulative effect of a chorus. Each form is different. My observation is that the women are all lonely.  I collected many impressive lines. The rewritings that impressed me include Arachne (as an example of weaving); the confusion of Callisto as she transforms into a bear and a constellation; the story of Scylla begins as emails exchanged with her friend Galatea, and the creepy stalker guy Polyphemus, then Circe turns her into a monster in the water with a skirt of dogs where Scylla tries to cope by controlling what she can, her own thoughts; Medusa saying she is lonely; the irony of Egera turning into a spring when she wa

 Natalie Haynes. A Thousand Ships. (United Kingdom: Pan Macmillan, 2019)  This novel is the story of the Trojan War told from the women’s point of view. The cause of the war is traced back and back further, so the blame does not lie with Helen. Female characters of all statuses are given voice to present their perspectives. The muse, Calliope, speaks. Haynes creates voices, tones, and points of view for the female characters. I found the chapter on Laodamia particularly moving.  In the middle of the book Calliope says, ‘[Is] Oenone less of a hero than Menelaus? He loses his wife so he stirs up an army to bring her back to him, costing countless lives and creating countless widows, orphans and slaves. Oenone loses her husband and she raises their son. Which of those is the more heroic act?’ (p. 177). Calliope, as muse to the storyteller, acts as a commentator. In the concluding chapter of the novel, Calliope says, ‘I have picked up the old stories and I have shaken them until the hidde

 Alice Oswald. Memorial: An Excavation of The Iliad. (United Kingdom: Faber and Faber, 2011)  Alice Oswald’s poem, based on the Iliad , is published as an excavation. This interpretation removes the narrative. What remains is an atmosphere, which Oswald describes as invocative, as if speaking to the dead. What do we mean by ‘excavation’? Is that supposed to suggest an appropriation, a ransacking, or an archaeological dig that reveals new evidence that reshapes our thinking about something we thought we knew?  The poem relates descriptions of the deaths of fighters in the Iliad , intercut with repeated long similes from the epic. It opens with the list of names of the dead, in a font that suggests a stone war memorial, so the typography suggests the reception. The effect is contemplative and mesmerising. Initially, I thought it worked as a poem and was wondering how it could work as a play. But now I believe it would work better as a play than a poem. It has been performed from Adelaid

 Ursula Le Guin. Lavinia . (United Kingdom: Gollancz, 2009)  Le Guin frames her narrative as a woman reclaiming her story. The character of Lavinia addresses the poet about what he got wrong.  Le Guin says in the Afterword that she removed the gods from the story because gods do not work in a novel. ‘More than anything else, my story is an act of gratitude to the poet, a love offering’ (p. 289)...’It is a meditative interpretation suggested by a minor character in his story - the unfolding of a hint,’(p. 290) and ‘My desire was to follow Virgil, not to improve or reprove him’ (p. 291). She has the character of Lavinia say: ‘I am not the feminine voice you may have expected. Resentment is not what drives me to write my story. Anger, in part, perhaps. But not an easy anger. I long for justice but I do not know what justice is. It is hard to be betrayed. It is harder to know you make betrayal inevitable’ (p. 71). This is particularly interesting as a standard to be compared with more rece

 Margaret Atwood. The Penelopiad . (United Kingdom: Canongate, 2005).  Margaret Atwood retells the story of Homer's Odyssey from Penelope's point of view. It is told in fragmented form, intercutting Penelope’s point of view with the chorus of murdered maids, the ancient chorus here presented as a modern chorus line of girls singing and dancing. Both are narrating from the underworld. Chapters are short. The effect is cumulative. Often, the tone is ironic. Atwood writes a short play of the court case defending Odysseus, which ends with the maids calling upon the Furies to torture Odysseus, but they are dismissed by the Attorney for the Defense calling upon Athena to dismiss them, which is a fun tribute to the ending of the Orestia . In presenting the story of The Odyssey from the perspective of Penelope and the maids, reframed as slaves, Atwood subverts the traditionally received readings of The Odyssey.  In Atwood’s version, Penelope asks the maids to gather intelligence from

 Elizabeth Cook. Achilles: A Novel. (United Kingdom: Methuen, 2001).  The text is a rewriting of the Iliad , playing with form and topography, with the use of italics, and double underlining. It is well written.  Chiron advises Peleus how to mate with Thetis, the sea nymph. I was struck by the description of how she turns to fire, then water, then a lion, then snake, then cuttlefish, releasing sticky black ink, then a woman.  Achilles has the red hair of a fox. He is taught by Chiron, then sent to live as a girl, Pyrrha, among girls. He mates with Deidamia and impregnates her. Odysseus finds him with a trick and takes him to Troy. Cleverly, Athene is described as the ‘grey-eyed brainchild’ of Zeus (p. 36). Her image of Briseis is vivid: ‘She creeps around like an unowned kitten, fending for herself as best she can" (p. 41). I noted the description of the wailing of Thetis and the sea nymphs, which references her sisters, and those nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the Muses.