Female epic
The female epic is a concept in
epic tradition to express their own heroic
visions.
Historically,
feminist literary critics have identified a number of texts written by women which, they argue, deserve to be considered epics, as they have many of the required qualities: emphasis on heroism, nation building, religious authority, a strong quest motif, and significant length.[2] Because these texts post-date Milton's Paradise Lost – conventionally considered to be the last authentic epic in the Western tradition –[3]
they are by default "modern epics".
However, argue these critics, this is by no means a contradiction. The epic remains an authentic and vital literary genre, and one to which women have made valuable contributions.[4]
Poetry Epics by Women
- Faltonia Betitia Proba's A Virgilian Cento Concerning the Glory of Christ or Cento was written in fourth century AD. The epic poem uses verses by Virgil in a re-ordered form to recount the life of Jesus.[5]
- Byzantines and Arabs, and the Umayyads and Abbasids. The story itself is medieval in origin, though its exact dating is disputed; it dates back to at least the mid-12th century CE, as it was popular among Muslims during the Crusades, but many scholars believe it was written c.1000 CE, around the time of the Seljuk conquests.
- Mary Tighe's Psyche (1805) uses the Spenserian stanza form originated by Edmund Spenser in his Elizabethan epic The Faerie Queene. In Tighe's epic poem the goddess Venus, out of jealousy for the attentions Psyche receives, commands Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with a monster.[6][7]
- H.D.'s Helen of Egypt (1961) is an American epic poem that reinvents the myths surrounding Helen, Paris, Achilles, Theseus, and other ancient Greek characters, fusing storylines with the mysteries of Egyptian hermeticism.[8][9][10]
- Sylvie Kandé, a Franco-Senegalese author, published an epic poem in three cantos that imagines the fate of Mansa Aboubakar II of Mali. One the scenes imagines that a Mali imperial expedition reaches the Americas before Columbus.[15]
- Alice Notley's The Descent of Alette (1996) is a feminist poetry epic which critiques the epic poem itself. It explores a heroine's (Alette) journey through the underworld, re-imagined as an underground subway station, of which she and others are destined to spend eternity at the hands of the Tyrant, a patriarchal figure who controls the world.[16]
References
- ISBN 0-7546-5486-9.
- ISBN 0-313-32360-7.
- ^ Fowler, Alastair (1985). Kinds of Literature: An Introduction to the Theory of Genres and Modes. Harvard University Press. p. 167.
- ^ Schweizer (2006), p. 6
- ^ "Seven of the Best Epic Poems by Female Poets". Interesting Literature. 2017-04-19. Retrieved 2020-09-05.
- ISBN 978-3-11-037669-2
- OCLC 823720846.
- ISBN 978-0-19-026894-7
- ^ "Helen in Egypt: H. D.'s Modernist Epic". Interesting Literature. 2018-11-09. Retrieved 2020-09-05.
- ^ "H. D." Poetry Foundation. 2020-09-05. Retrieved 2020-09-05.
- OCLC 1143649021.
- S2CID 144342078.
- ^ Poets, Academy of American. "Empire of Dreams [excerpt] by Giannina Braschi - Poems | Academy of American Poets". poets.org. Retrieved 2020-09-05.
- ^ Carrion, Maria Mercedes. "Geography, (M)Other Tongues and the Role of Translation in Giannina Braschi's El imperio de los sueños". Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature. 20 (1).
- S2CID 203491348.
- ^ Poets, Academy of American. "The Descent of Alette ["The water" "of the river"] by Alice Notley - Poems | Academy of American Poets". poets.org. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
Further reading
- Tillyard, E. M. W. (1958). The Epic Strain in the English Novel. Chatto & Windus.
- Johns-Putra, Adeline (2001). Heroes and Housewives. Frankfurt Am Main: P. Lang. ISBN 0-8204-5076-6.
- ISBN 9780754654865