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- Title
Myth, Creativity and Repressions in Modern Literature: Refigurations from Ancient Greek Myth.
- Authors
HARDWICK, LORNA
- Abstract
The persistence of ancient Greek myth in the arts and cultural politics has, paradoxically, been energised by the capacity of myth to inspire and accommodate change. The malleability of mythological narratives has been a rich source of creativityand also an index of changes in horizons of imagination and understanding. This both permits and nuances the notion of 'Return' in cultural history. The essay explores distinctive features of these processes through selected modern case studies that map how myth can be adapted in different literary and performance genres, including new media. The first example compares and contrasts approaches by Margaret Atwood and Derek Walcott to the hanging of the maids in Homer's Odyssey. The second case study analyses the nexus between myth and history in Tony Harrison's film poem The Gaze of the Gorgon. The third example discusses the adaption of the Heracles story in Greek myth and tragedy for a modern radio and live theatre work by Simon Armitage. Aesthetic and socio-political forces interact, revealing how the re-imagination that is part of the formation of cultural memory can repress and erase as well as adapting. Thus the continuing Return to the Greek narratives not only renews their cultural force but also transforms it.
- Subjects
REPRESSION (Psychology) in literature; ARTISTIC creation; MYTH in literature
- Publication
Journal of Comparative Literature & Aesthetics, 2017, Vol 40, Issue 2, p11
- ISSN
0252-8169
- Publication type
Article