Women and Myths in A. S. Byatt’s Anthology, Medusa’s Ankles
This article investigates Byatt’s use of myths in her short fiction. It explores the various interpretations of myths through the reading of three stories. “Medusa’s Ankles” exemplifies Byatt’s feminist demystification of the Freudian castration complex. “Heavenly Bodies” contrasts the ancient myth...
Guardat en:
| Publicat a: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jsse, |
|---|---|
| Autor principal: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
| Publicat: |
Journal of the Short Story in English
2022
|
| Accés en línia: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sumari: | This article investigates Byatt’s use of myths in her short fiction. It explores the various interpretations of myths through the reading of three stories. “Medusa’s Ankles” exemplifies Byatt’s feminist demystification of the Freudian castration complex. “Heavenly Bodies” contrasts the ancient myth of the Virgin and the modern myths of female pop stars, thus mobilising Barthes’s definition of myths as cultural phenomena. Finally, “A Stone Woman” constitues Byatt’s own creation of a female myth that also talks to current environmental concerns. Short fiction allows Byatt to tackle the female body-mind dilemma charactersitic of her work in uncompromising ways that focus on the language of the stories rather than the psychology of characters. |
|---|