Laughing with Medusa Classical Myth and Feminist Thought

by Zajko, Vanda; Leonard, Miriam

• ISBN13: 9780199237944
• ISBN10: 0199237948
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Laughing with Medusa explores a series of interlinking questions,including: Does history's self-positioning as the successor of myth result inthe exclusion of alternative narratives of the past? How does feminism excludeitself from certain historical discourses? Why has psychoanalysis placed myth atthe centre of its explorations of the modern subject? Why are the Musesfeminine? Do the categories of myth and politics intersect or are they mutuallyexclusive? Does feminism's recourse to myth offer a script of resistance orcommit it to an ineffective utopianism? Covering a wide range of subject areasincluding poetry, philosophy, science, history, and psychoanalysis as well asclassics, this book engages with these questions from a truly interdisciplinaryperspective. It includes a specially commisssioned work of fiction,'Iphigeneia's Wedding', by the poet Elizabeth Cook.

Author Biography

Vanda Zajko is Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, University of Bristol.
Miriam Leonard is Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, University of Bristol.

Table of Contents

Introduction, Vanda Zajko and Miriam LeonardI. Myth and PsychoanalysisHope, Promise, Threaten, and Swear: Psychoanalytic Myths of the Future for Boys and Girls, Rachel Bowlby`Who are we when we read?' Keats, Klein, Cixous, and Elizabeth Cook's Achilles, Vanda ZajkoBeyond Oedipus: Feminist Thought, Psychoanalysis, and Mythical Figurations of the Feminine, Griselda Pollock2. Myth and PoliticsLacan, Irigaray, and Beyond: Antigones and the Politics of Psychoanalysis, Miriam LeonardAntigone and the Politics of Sisterhood, Simon GoldhillFascism on Stage: Jean Anouilh's Antigone, Katie Fleming3. Myth and HistoryA Woman's History of Warfare, Ellen O'GormanBeyond glorious Ocean': Feminism, Myth, and America, Greg Staley4. Myth and ScienceAtoms, Individuals, and Myths, Duncan KennedyThe Philosopher and the Mother Cow: Towards a Gendered Reading of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, Alison SharrockScience Fictions and Cyber Myths: Or, Do Cyborgs Dream of Dolly the Sheep?, Genevieve Liveley5. Myth and PoetryPutting the Women Back into the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, Lillian DohertyReclaiming the Muse, Penny MurrayDefying History: The Legacy of Helen in Modern Poetry, Efi Spentzou`This tart fable': Daphne, Apollo, and Contemporary Women's Poetry, Rowena FowlerIphigeneia's Wedding, Elizabeth Cook