Do we have a new song yet? The new wave of women’s novels and the Homeric tradition

Goff, B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0598-2843 (2022) Do we have a new song yet? The new wave of women’s novels and the Homeric tradition. Humanities, 11 (2). 49. ISSN 2076-0787 doi: 10.3390/h11020049

Abstract/Summary

The relationship between women and classical antiquity, its texts, artefacts, and study, has been fraught to say the least; the discipline of Classics has often been defined by the exclusion of women, in terms of their education and their ability to contribute to debates more generally. However, we are currently in the middle of an astonishing period when women are laying more of a claim to the discipline than ever before. This article examines three recent novels by women which take on the cultural weight of the Homeric epics, Iliad and Odyssey, to explore the possibilities of a ‘new song’ that foregrounds female characters. The novels experiment with different narrative voices and are self-conscious about the practices of story-telling and of bardic song. Their awareness of their challenge to and contest with Homeric tradition renders their ‘new songs’ fragile as well as precious.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/104558
Identification Number/DOI	10.3390/h11020049
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > Modern European Histories and Cultures Arts, Humanities and Social Science > Language Text and Power Arts, Humanities and Social Science > Identities Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Humanities > Classics
Uncontrolled Keywords	Briseis; Circe; Calliope; Pat Barker; Madeline Miller; Natalie Haynes; Homer; narrator; bard; song
Publisher	MDPI
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