Women Writers and the Dark Side of Late-Victorian Hellenism

by T. Olverson

Overview

Examining the appropriation of transgressive, violent female figures from ancient Greek literature and myth by late Victorian writers, Olverson reveals the extent to which ancient antagonists like the murderous Medea and the sinister Circe were employed as a means to protest against and comment upon contemporary social and political institutions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349303427
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	11/19/2009
Edition description:	1st ed. 2010
Pages:	237
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

T.D.OLVERSON is a researcher in nineteenth-century literature and culture, and author of essays on women's travel writing, Victorian poetry and nineteenth-century children's literature.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction: Contested Ground: Gender and Victorian Hellenism(s) Taking on the Tradition: Augusta Webster's Feminist Revisionism Amy Levy's Greek Anti-Heroines Worlds Without Women: Emily Pfeiffer's Political Hellenism Old Greek Wine in New Bottles: Michael Field's Dionysiac Poetics Medea's Haunting of the Fin de Siècle Afterword Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

'...this book is an important reminder of how valuable fin de siècle women found the violent Greek women and goddesses who burst onto the Attic stage, insisting upon their own point of view.' -Review of English Studies

From the Publisher