Laughing with Medusa

Classical Myth and Feminist Thought

Edited by Vanda Zajko and Miriam Leonard

Classical Presences

A groundbreaking study of the role of classical myth in feminist thought
Encompasses a wide range of subject areas, including classics, history, science, psychoanalysis, philosophy, literature, and poetry
Includes a specially commissioned work of fiction, `Iphigeneia's Wedding', by the poet Elizabeth Cook

Laughing with Medusa

Classical Myth and Feminist Thought

Edited by Vanda Zajko and Miriam Leonard

Description

Laughing with Medusa explores a series of interlinking questions, including: Does history's self-positioning as the successor of myth result in the exclusion of alternative narratives of the past? How does feminism exclude itself from certain historical discourses? Why has psychoanalysis placed myth at the centre of its explorations of the modern subject? Why are the Muses feminine? Do the categories of myth and politics intersect or are they mutually exclusive? Does feminism's recourse to myth offer a script of resistance or commit it to an ineffective utopianism? Covering a wide range of subject areas including poetry, philosophy, science, history, and psychoanalysis as well as classics, this book engages with these questions from a truly interdisciplinary perspective. It includes a specially commisssioned work of fiction, `Iphigeneia's Wedding', by the poet Elizabeth Cook.

Laughing with Medusa

Classical Myth and Feminist Thought

Edited by Vanda Zajko and Miriam Leonard

Classical Presences

Introduction, Vanda Zajko and Miriam Leonard
I. Myth and Psychoanalysis
Hope, 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 Zajko
Beyond Oedipus: Feminist Thought, Psychoanalysis, and Mythical Figurations of the Feminine, Griselda Pollock
2. Myth and Politics
Lacan, Irigaray, and Beyond: Antigones and the Politics of Psychoanalysis, Miriam Leonard
Antigone and the Politics of Sisterhood, Simon Goldhill
Fascism on Stage: Jean Anouilh's Antigone, Katie Fleming
3. Myth and History
A Woman's History of Warfare, Ellen O'Gorman
Beyond glorious Ocean': Feminism, Myth, and America, Greg Staley
4. Myth and Science
Atoms, Individuals, and Myths, Duncan Kennedy
The Philosopher and the Mother Cow: Towards a Gendered Reading of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, Alison Sharrock
Science Fictions and Cyber Myths: Or, Do Cyborgs Dream of Dolly the Sheep?, Genevieve Liveley
5. Myth and Poetry
Putting the Women Back into the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, Lillian Doherty
Reclaiming the Muse, Penny Murray
Defying History: The Legacy of Helen in Modern Poetry, Efi Spentzou
`This tart fable': Daphne, Apollo, and Contemporary Women's Poetry, Rowena Fowler
Iphigeneia's Wedding, Elizabeth Cook

Laughing with Medusa

Classical Myth and Feminist Thought

Edited by Vanda Zajko and Miriam Leonard

Classical Presences

Author Information

Edited by Vanda Zajko, Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, University of Bristol, and Miriam Leonard, Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, University of Bristol

Contributors:

Rachel Bowlby, University College London
Elizabeth Cook
Lillian Doherty, University of Maryland
Katie Fleming, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London
Rowena Fowler, University of Bristol
Simon Goldhill, University of Cambridge
Duncan F. Kennedy, University of Bristol
Miriam Leonard, University of Bristol
Genevieve Liveley, University of Bristol
Penelope Murray, University of Warwick
Ellen O'Gorman, University of Bristol
Griselda Pollock, University of Leeds
Alison Sharrock, University of Manchester
Efi Spentzou, Royal Holloway, London
Gregory Staley, University of Maryland
Vanda Zajko, University of Bristol

Laughing with Medusa

Classical Myth and Feminist Thought

Edited by Vanda Zajko and Miriam Leonard

Classical Presences

Reviews and Awards

"...a unique and well-timed volume...all of the contributions demonstrate originality, creativity and erudition." - Judith Fletcher, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"...a good and useful book." - Paul Allen Miller, Journal of Hellenic Studies