Voice and Song in Contemporary Greek Myth Retellings

Voice and Song in Contemporary Greek Myth Retellings examines the recent wave of contemporary retellings of Greek myth, focusing on the notions of voices, silence and music and the rewriting of history.

Focusing on such authors as Pat Barker (Trojan trilogy), Madeline Miller (Circe, The Song of Achilles), Margaret Atwood (The Penelopiad), Nina MacLaughlin (Wake Siren), Kae Tempest (Brand New Ancients), Alice Oswald (Memorial) and Carol Ann Duffy (The World’s Wife) this study evokes the ways in which new voices might emerge from ancient texts. It seeks to define the ways in which contemporary literature grapples with epics in order to both criticize the “authenticity” of female voices within them and to question the ways in which some new voices, or songs, might be heard, whether in literal or in metaphorical ways. Exploring new forms of storytelling, contemporary retellings creatively bridge the gap between past and present, moving beyond the heroic, male-centered “I” towards fluidity and multiplicity while making way for new forms of heroism.

This volume will appeal to a diverse academic and general readership interested in classical reception, contemporary literature and feminist reinterpretations of myth, as well as those interested in feminist literary criticism, narrative theory, and the politics of voice and representation in storytelling.