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  • Textbook
  • © 2001

Myth and Fairy Tale in Contemporary Women's Fiction

Authors:

  1. Susan Sellers
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  • Provides a helpful and detailed survey of existing work on myth
    Asks 'what is myth?' and examines why apparently misogynistic narratives of myth and fairytale continue to influence the works of contemporary women writers
    Offers fresh readings of a range of contemporary women fiction writers across a range of genres

Sections

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
    PDF

  2. Contexts

    • Susan Sellers
    Pages 1-34

  3. The Double-Voice of Laughter

    • Susan Sellers
    Pages 35-50

  4. Re-Creation in Other Love

    • Susan Sellers
    Pages 51-62

  5. Becoming Gods and Umbilical Wordbows

    • Susan Sellers
    Pages 63-78

  6. Unlimited Horror

    • Susan Sellers
    Pages 79-95

  7. Bodies of Power

    • Susan Sellers
    Pages 96-106

  8. New Myths or Old?

    • Susan Sellers
    Pages 107-127

  9. Conclusion

    • Susan Sellers
    Pages 128-139

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 140-198
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About this book

Woman as gorgon, woman as temptress: the classical and biblical mythology which has dominated Western thinking defines women in a variety of patriarchally encoded roles. This study addresses the surprising persistence of mythical influence in contemporary fiction. Opening with the question 'what is myth?', the first section provides a wide-ranging review of mythography. It traces how myths have been perceived and interpreted by such commentators as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Bruno Bettelheim, Roland Barthes, Jack Zipes and Marina Warner. This leads to an examination of the role that mythic narrative plays in social and self formation, drawing on the literary, feminist and psychoanalytic theories of Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Helene Cixous and Judith Butler to delineate the ways in which women's mythos can transcend the limitations of logos and give rise to potent new models for individual and cultural regeneration.
In this light, Susan Sellers offers challenging new readings of a wide range of contemporary women's fiction, including works by A. S. Byatt, Angela Carter, Anne Rice, Michele Roberts, Emma Tennant and Fay Weldon. Topics explored include fairy tale as erotic fiction, new religious writing, vampires and gender-bending, mythic mothers, genre fiction, the still-persuasive paradigm of feminine beauty, and the radical potential of comedy.
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Keywords

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About the author

SUSAN SELLERS is Professor of English and Related Literature at the University of St Andrews.
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Bibliographic Information

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