All Women in Greek Myth

: An Intersectional Framework for the Study of Women in Mythology in Popular Culture and Beyond

Abstract

Adaptations of Greek mythology have become hugely popular in recent years, especially for articulating marginal voices in traditionally masculine stories. These receptions and their predecessors do not generally benefit from engagement with academic research on the ancient source texts, or in some cases, with source texts themselves, but often engage with earlier reception texts to produce new and innovative versions of well-known Greek myths. This thesis addresses receptions on their own terms as texts that are created within their contemporary environment and thus present contemporary ideologies of identity across lines of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, (dis)ability, and age. I analyse a variety of receptions across several myths through an intersectional lens which incorporates these identity categories. Focusing on female-identified characters as those who are assumed to be marginalised by gender, I demonstrate how an intersectional approach reveals the ways that these characters, often used to tell subversive versions of the myths along gendered lines, can instead be used to support normative ideologies, as well as the ways that seemingly normative representations of such characters can reveal subversion of epic or traditional modes of storytelling. Taking examples of receptions between 1960 and 2021 featuring women from the myths of Perseus and Medusa, the Trojan Cycle, the underworld, and Medea, I argue that the retelling of myth across all types of media and across the ‘high’/’low’ culture divide handles myth on the same level, by rewriting it to best suit the contemporary audience and presenting the women in a way to facilitate the intended message. The intersectional reading challenges the feminist credentials of some works presented as feminist, while popular works that have been dismissed for their lack of engagement with source texts are shown to be capable of deeply resonating with ancient concerns.

Date of Award	12 Nov 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Roehampton
Sponsors	technē AHRC
Supervisor	Fiona McHardy (Director of Studies), Susan Deacy (Co-Supervisor) & Dr. Ian Kinane (Co-Supervisor)