Callisto Myth from Ovid to Atwood: Initiation and Rape in Literature

Voorkant
McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 1 jul 1988 - 240 pagina's
Kathleen Wall traces the myth through fifteen works of English, American, and Canadian literature, providing a fresh, feminist reading of these narratives. Among the works analysed are selections by Margaret Atwood, Charlotte Bronte, Thomas Hardy, and George Elliot. The resulting text reveals many facets of the realities of women's experience from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. And ultimately, Wall shows rape to be an expression of dominance rather than lust, giving increased support to the definition suggested by feminists. Wall demonstrates that the Callisto myth is a powerful archetype which illustrates both the victimization of women and their search for independence and autonomy, an archetype that should not be ignored by modern women.

Vanuit het boek

Inhoudsopgave

Introduction
3
1 Classical Versions and Their Implications
10
2 Callisto in the Medieval and Renaissance Traditions
26
The Armour of Logos
47
Mysteries of the Forest
62
Even Plain Jane Can Be a Nymph
76
The Power of Societys Sacred Sanctions
94
Woman Empowered
107
Liberating the Myth
137
The Matriarchal Myth Resurfaces
155
11 Beyond Rape
171
Appendices
185
Notes
193
Bibliography
207
Index
223
Copyright

The Maid Who Went to the Merry Green Wood
119

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Veelvoorkomende woorden en zinsdelen

Populaire passages

Pagina 80 - Women are supposed to be very calm generally ; but women feel just as men feel ; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do...
Pagina 53 - He that has light within his own clear breast, May sit i' the centre and enjoy bright day : But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts, Benighted walks under the mid-day sun ; Himself is his own dungeon.
Pagina 78 - Miss Temple seemed to remonstrate. "Madam," he pursued, "I have a Master to serve whose kingdom is not of this world: my mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts of the flesh; to teach them to clothe themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with braided hair and costly apparel; and each of the young persons before us has a string of hair twisted in plaits which vanity itself might have woven: these, I repeat, must be cut off: think of the time wasted, of
Pagina 53 - Wisdom's self Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude ; Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, That in the various bustle of resort Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impair'd. He that has light within his own clear breast, May sit i...
Pagina 51 - Tis chastity, my brother, chastity : She that has that, is clad in complete steel, And like a quiver'd nymph with arrows keen May trace huge forests, and unharbour'd heaths, Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds, Where through the sacred rays of chastity, No savage, fierce bandite, or mountaineer Will dare to soil her virgin purity...
Pagina 82 - Jane Eyre, who had been an ardent, expectant woman - almost a bride, was a cold, solitary girl again: her life was pale; her prospects were desolate. A Christmas frost had come at midsummer; a white December storm had whirled over June; ice glazed the ripe apples, drifts crushed the blowing roses; on hayfield and cornfield lay a frozen shroud: lanes which last night blushed full of flowers, today were pathless with untrodden snow; and the woods, which twelve hours since waved leafy and fragrant as...
Pagina 99 - By another impulse, she took off the formal cap that confined her hair; and down it fell upon her shoulders, dark and rich, with at once a shadow and a light in its abundance, and imparting the charm of softness to her features. There played around her mouth, and beamed out of her eyes, a radiant and tender smile, that seemed gushing from the very heart of womanhood.
Pagina 84 - Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless ? You think wrong ! — I have as much soul as you, — and full as much heart ! And if God had gifted me with some beauty, and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you.
Pagina 52 - Of dragon watch with unenchanted eye, To save her blossoms and defend her fruit From the rash hand of bold incontinence.
Pagina 96 - The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, — stern and wild ones, — and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.

Over de auteur (1988)

Eng, U of Regina

Bibliografische gegevens