Margaret Atwood: The Penelopiad – Rewriting in Postmodern Feminine Literature

Abstract

This paper underlines the role of postmodern rewriting in feminist literature based on the novel The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. The Penelopiad is a postmodern rewriting in which the feminist discourse criticizes the patriarchal view on the relationship between sexes in the desacralization of the Odysseus – Penelope couple. In her desire to disclose the flaws of patriarchy, Atwood shifts the centre of the narrative perspective from the masculine to the feminine and draws attention to the victims of this type of society. In this feminist rewriting, Atwood aims beyond the Homeric myth, at the contemporary society that, despite its theoretical principles about equality between sexes, is unable to provide a climate in which women are granted full rights. In this context, rewriting becomes not only a means of social criticism, but also a field for the battle against the centre, and the myth is the story that must be eliminated because it reflects a guilty, intolerant mentality that is incompatible with progress.

Keywords

• postmodernism
• rewriting
• feminism
• desacralisation
• mithology