Atwood's The Penelopiad as a Feminist Critique of Homeric Myth

Abstract

This research explores the ideas of revisiting the Homeric myth on Penelope from the perspective of contemporary 'feminist critique' of male writers' representation of females. Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad deconstructs the Homeric myth thereby highlighting the roles, structures and space of female characters and subverting the tradition of epic genre. The narrator in this novella makes a bespoke response to Homeric epic, The Odyssey. Instead of emphasizing on the heroic and adventurous deeds of Odysseus as related in the Homeric myth, Atwood stresses on the stories of marginalized women like Penelope, 12 Maids, Helen, Anticlea and Eurycleia. In her revisionist version, Atwood represents the female characters as bold and assertive. Thus, Atwood revisits the past from the perspective of 'feminist critique' and emphasizes on the female writings as well as female identity.