What is Murray-Smith and Atwood teaching us about...
Similarities and Contrasts - points of difference
Post-Feminist Literature
Empowerment
Individual Empowerment
Sexuality
Bombshells emphasis sexuality at all ages
Penelope's proposed relationships with other suitors
Choice
Attempts to justify her decisions and make sense of the challenges that have come her way
Career
Maternal
Resilience and Change
Post feminists are sexual activists who use their body and attractiveness as an instrument to achieve societal and personal change
Murray-Smith windows into womanhood in a post feminists society show how easily modern women can disappear inside the impossible pressure to be great
Post feminism concentrate on furthering the idea of empowerment, the celebration of femininity, freedom of choice and liberation
Challenges of being a woman
Exacerbated by a celebrity
The idea of perfection
Myth
Undermind the myth the marriage automatically provides a grounding sense of identity
Clash uncomfortably with the characters needs to express their individuality, thus creating pressures that erupt into turmoil
Superficially reflect the stereotypical female ideals
Struggle to measure up to the various images of successful woman hood celebrated in popular culture
These identities operate as contradictions in someones concept of self feeling or self being
Jealousy
Motivating factor
Penelope
"Is this always a bad thing"?
Exposing Helens short comings
Penelope managing the farm
Giving a characteristic Helen doesn't have
Teenager represented by Mary
Resilience
Egotistical
Weapon of Resilience
"Is this always the case?"
Winsome and the other widows
Keep each other company and offer a support network
Cut throat world
These interrelated narratives suggest a close community network in which women measure themselves against other women
Owns her past - Competitiveness
Zoe Struthers has risen above the negative nature of competitiveness
General Sentences
Murray-Smith and Atwood uncover the types of...
We thus arrive at the crux of the problem
These publications give voice to a diverse range of young women
They pinpoint the challenges that 21st century women of different stages of they lives
Times of Crisis
Manic
Expose inner most troubles and concerns
Penelope
Meryl
Theresa
The these described in the authors notes of 'women of the edge' unites the 6 characters
Momentary and women can overcome it
Risk
Maids
Zoe
Ziggy
Marry
Winsome
Penelope
Resilience and Change
Renewal and Rebirth
Storytelling
Characters are faced with the moment in which their lives become less stable or what they have relied on or known starts to fail them
Offers useful ways of getting around some of the pitfalls of being a woman
Unlike bombshells, the penelopiad is based on a hypo text, which is and earlier text that serves as a source for later work of literature
These pro feminist themes continually encourage the audience to evaluate the situation of women in society
Inappropriate conversations about other women
Social expectations
Many of the women define themselves in their relations with others and when these relationships break down through either divorce, death or being on stage so does their concept of self.
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Feeds Insecurities
Mary epitomises the generalisations associated with teenage girls having total belief in ones self and ones ability
For many of the women feel the need to be loved and accepted by men before they can be happy with their own identities
The label of widow for Winsome becomes an anchor in a life in which her needs are mostly ignored
Tiggy Enwhistles halting monologue is continually interrupted by a pause or a "beat" as she struggles to compose herself or to reveal a painful truth
Draws on a range of cliches
Beneath the bravado is a nagging fear that someone else might win
Her final scram is an expression of rage and despair directed at a society where women are seduced by romantic dreams and celebrity glamour and made to believe that these will bring happiness
A crashing sense monotony
Crafted narratives offering multiple perspectives giving voices to those who are often silenced and power to the disempowered
Adjectives to describe characters
Odysseus
Cunning
Resourcefulness
Determination to return home
The contrast in draw out by Atwood with binary oppositions and in the personal antagonism between the two women in the underworld
Story Telling
Attwood debunks the version of the story found in the Odessy by suggesting a more prosaic, less heroic alternative
the effect is to subvert the archaic, heroic masculine perspective of the source text by countering it with an ironic witty, ironic, modern sounding female voice
In at woods retelling of Homeric myth "women speak" and what they speak of are not "heroes are not incredible feats, but are inhumanly human things done in wartime"
The voice Murray-Smith give to each woman express the challenges that can be faced external but also significantly how difficult it can be to verbalise and deal emotionally with what happens to their security and belief in self
Provide the internal dialogue of how they cope with and react to these events
Respecting choice and not judging
Two-Faces of war
The illiad
The manly face of war
Courage on the battlefield
Equipment and Generals
Outside (The public sphere)
Epic poem
Legacy
The Penleopiad
The womanly face of war
Slaughter of the palace
Household goods and handmaids
Inside (Private sphere)
Multivocal mixed narrative
The inhumanly human things
If there are two means of survival to the womens in the Penelopiad "Wit and Clitoris", then Penelope relies mainly on the first and Helen mainly on the second
Penelope
Relies on her wit
Helen
"I was smart, though... a plain but smart wife" page 21**
"Penelope the duck " page 28
"Plain Jane penelope" Page 37
"Second Prize " Page 35
Relies on her sexuality
"A woman who driven hundreds of men mad with lust" Page 21-22
"Intolerably beautiful " page 33
"Radiant Helen" Page 37
First Prize
Patriarchal Society
Atwood draws out contesting strategies for female survival in a world dominated by men
The Hangedmaids tale
The maids increasingly interrupt the narrative of Penelope
They denounce the "inhuman things" done to them by Odysseus and expose the partiality of Penelopes story
Their voices are witty parodic, tongue in cheek but also plaintive and haunting
They form a chorus (link to ancient greek drama) and provide a plurality of perspectives
Atwood gives a voice, to the voiceless victims of male violence
Atwood reworks her male authored sources in much the same way that Penelope deals with the overbearing men in her life
Just as Penelope does not confront her suitors of her husband head on, preferring to outwit them instead, so the penelopad does not openly challenge of dispute the mythic narratives on which it is base
Rather than resisting the authority of her mythical sources, Atwood goes around it by probing them for what they leave unsaid
The Penelope and Atwood "spins a thread of her own on her mythical loom while the heroes of homeric myth are left to reveal, womanise, and slaughter outside
The owls is another symbol traditionally the keepers of knowledge owls are the guardians of the underworlds. Penelope says that she wants to scream out but when she does "she sounds like an owl", which refers to the fact that she knows things about the events that take place upon Odysseus return (the secrets must remain with her
Penelopes narrative is interspersed with snippets from the maids point of view of how they are treated
the opening line "now that I'm dead, i know everything" is an engaging and appealing start to the story, with that at the narrative progresses Penelope builds her own voice, as she becomes her own story teller
Penelopes voice is at times cheeky and plain spoken
Humour and sarcasm add a new perspective that challenges the idea that Penelope is just a loyal and subservient wife
Black humour and humour is used frequently throughout the play to lighten the atmosphere and temper what would otherwise be a heavy or tense moment
The use peponelopes cove as the narrator allows us to see how she completely she outwits many of the men around her and that she is conscious of others perceptions of her (but we are aware of her regrets and defence of her actions)
The maids' voice mainly changes as it mimics several genre styles at times it appears playful and fun and at others it is outraged and sorrowful
As we move to each section of the maids, their voice becomes increasing angry
Although the changing style of the maids voice may cause the reader to dismiss or gloss over their silliness, in true greek theatre their voice is the most authoritative
Marriage
Penelope and Odysseus marriage bed is partly made from a tree symbolising the continuity and put permanence on their marraige
as the daughter of a Naiad, Penelope has a close affinity with water, her way is not challenge but to find a way to get what she wants with cunning, which is her wit
Attwood presents Penelopes world as one of survival
Women may have forced by gender to congregate and work together, but this does not mean they would necessarily form close bonds or protect each other
Penelope describes herself as being alone
As the under dogs in a society dominated by men, the women of ancient Greece competing with each other to be heard, noticed or to sustain what little power they had
Women were treated as prizes and possessions
As the under dogs in a society dominated by men, the women of ancient Greece competing with each other to be heard, noticed or to sustain what little power they had
Attwood draws on the archetypes of women in literature and challenges societal notions of these women as passive, victims or villains
Attwood gives these women contemporary voices to challenge the restrictions of ancient Greece
Distinct purpose of clearing her name
The reader must questions her motives and facts and she relays them
Atwood suggests that story telling is a matter of perspective
The marginalised
The voice given to the maids provides an outlet for the marginalised and allows them to seek justice and vengance
The ever-changing form of the maids sections reduces their weight and significance in comparison to Penelope and diminishes their status as serious characters (even the modern-day courtroom say mostly ignores their point of view)
Children, servants and women particularly less attractive women, were among those who were without power or status in ancient Greece