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Disarming the canon : exploring Tepper’s and Atwood’s retelling of classical (her)story
Dissertation (MA (English))--University of Pretoria, 2019.
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| Language: | English |
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University of Pretoria
2024
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| _version_ | 1867613439939051520 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Brown, Molly |
| author_browse | Brown, Molly |
| author_facet | Brown, Molly |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2021 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
| description | Dissertation (MA (English))--University of Pretoria, 2019. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/97482 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:36:10.076Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/97482 Disarming the canon : exploring Tepper’s and Atwood’s retelling of classical (her)story Brown, Molly nicole.best@up.ac.za Best, Nicole UCTD Sheri S. Tepper Margaret Atwood The Penelopiad Iphigenia at Aulis Iphigenia among the Taurians The Trojan women The Odyssey Dissertation (MA (English))--University of Pretoria, 2019. This dissertation explores the ways in which two contemporary texts, Sheri S. Tepper’s (1990) The gate to Women’s Country and Margaret Atwood’s (2005) The Penelopiad, adapt classical texts by Euripides and Homer in order to make and strengthen statements about contemporary gender ideologies that may be rooted in and perpetuated by the canonization of classical texts such as those involved in this study. I start by discussing the curious phenomenon of the simultaneous prevalence of adaptations of classical Greek literature in contemporary culture and the often negative perception of adaptations. I then explore the inequalities of gender, originality, and genre in both the contemporary texts and their classical counterparts before suggesting that although these qualities mean that the contemporary texts might have been critically neglected, they are also the reason that the contemporary texts are able to effectively question the classical texts that they adapt. I draw on Hutcheon’s (2013) theory of adaptation and Bakhtin’s (1981) theory of dialogics to motivate a critical analysis of the ways in which both contemporary texts use adaptation to write back to the past. Chapter one explores Sheri S. Tepper’s (1990) The gate to Women’s Country, which adapts three plays by Euripides – Iphigenia at Aulis ([410BCE] 1999), Iphigenia among the Taurians ([412BCE] 1959), and The Trojan women ([415BCE] 1959). Chapter two explores Margaret Atwood’s (2005) The Penelopiad, which adapts Homer’s ([800BCE] 1937) Odyssey. Through this analysis, I argue that by writing in liminal genres, Tepper and Atwood are uniquely situated to destabilise contemporary patriarchal worldviews rooted in a classical past and perpetuated by a classical canon. This dissertation thus aims to demonstrate the value of adaptation in reframing an old order so as to posit a new one. English MA (English) Unrestricted Faculty of Humanities 2024-08-07T08:36:32Z 2024-08-07T08:36:32Z 2020-04 2019 Dissertation * A2020 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/97482 en © 2021 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | UCTD Sheri S. Tepper Margaret Atwood The Penelopiad Iphigenia at Aulis Iphigenia among the Taurians The Trojan women The Odyssey Disarming the canon : exploring Tepper’s and Atwood’s retelling of classical (her)story |
| title | Disarming the canon : exploring Tepper’s and Atwood’s retelling of classical (her)story |
| title_full | Disarming the canon : exploring Tepper’s and Atwood’s retelling of classical (her)story |
| title_fullStr | Disarming the canon : exploring Tepper’s and Atwood’s retelling of classical (her)story |
| title_full_unstemmed | Disarming the canon : exploring Tepper’s and Atwood’s retelling of classical (her)story |
| title_short | Disarming the canon : exploring Tepper’s and Atwood’s retelling of classical (her)story |
| title_sort | disarming the canon exploring tepper s and atwood s retelling of classical her story |
| topic | UCTD Sheri S. Tepper Margaret Atwood The Penelopiad Iphigenia at Aulis Iphigenia among the Taurians The Trojan women The Odyssey |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/97482 |