2005
Review: London Times
• “But this shrewd person with a robust line in selfdeprecating wisecracks is also the heroine of a myth,
a story full of complication and danger and rich
enough in ambiguity to provide plenty of scope for
polemical reinterpretation. In this exquisitely poised
book, Atwood blends intimate humour with a finely
tempered outrage at the terrible injustice done to
the maids, phrasing both in language as potent as a
curse.”
Entertainment Weekly Review
• “Margaret Atwood (The Blind Assassin) revisits longsuffering Penelope and meandering Odysseus as an
alternately tragic and hilarious example of marriage
in The Penelopiad. She channels Penelope by way of
Absolutely Fabulous; one can imagine her chainsmoking and swilling wine between cracks about the
weakness of men and the misery they visit upon
women. (Thank goodness for veils, ''a practical help
for disguising red, puffy eyes.'') While the story isn't
new, Atwood's approach reminds us that there are
endlessly original ways to tell it.”
Key Ideas
•Major Theme:
Story-telling &
Story-listening
•Analytical Mode:
Intertextuality
•Style: Cabaret,
Greek Theater,
& Epic Traditions
Basic Tenet:
Authors Consciously
Choose Vantage Points
Atwood’s Foreword
• "Homer's Odyssey is not the only version of the story. Mythic
material was originally oral, and also local — a myth would be told
one way in one place and quite differently in another... I've
chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and to the
twelve hanged maids. The maids form a chanting and singing
Chorus, which focuses on two questions that must pose
themselves after any close reading of the Odyssey: What led to
the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?
The story as told in the Odyssey doesn't hold water: there are too
many inconsistencies. I've always been haunted by the hanged
maids and, in The Penelopiad, so is Penelope herself."
—from Margaret Atwood's
Foreword to The Penelopiad
Was Penelope the faithful and virtuous wife as told by Homer?
If Penelope told the story, would another truth be revealed?
If Penelope’s maids told the story, would Odysseus be guilty of murder
instead of acting within his rights as a slave owner?
What are your initial thoughts?
Atwood brings to question the validity of the storyteller.
The teller of a story has a personal reason to include or adjust facts or
opinions. The listener chooses what to believe.
To what extent do you find this true?
Ultimately, it’s up to the listener to choose a truth.
How does this seem fittingly “post-modern”?
Multiple FirstPerson
Narrators: New
P.O.V.
Basic Tenet:
Authors
Consciously
Choose
Vantage
Points
• Penelope—In Hades, unhappy about
being misunderstood by centuries of
readers, has a personal story to tell
and opinions of her husband and his
exploits. Tone = Acid, Sardonic,
Scathing, & “determinedly
irreverent”
• Penelope’s Maids (“The Chorus”) (er,
their ghosts)—Also in Hades, they too
have their story of unfair treatment to
tell, and they act out scenes from the
story between narrative interludes.
• Bonus: Hear from cousin Helen!
Review: London Times
• “Penelope’s narrative is punctuated by interjections from the
hanged maids. A skipping rhyme, a bawdy ballad, a
burlesque, a mini court-room drama, a parody of Aeschylus’s
Eumenides, even a lecture in paleo-anthropology, these
cabaret choric interludes are wittily conceived and adroitly executed,
their formal ingenuity a reminder that Atwood, always the
most stylish of novelists, was a poet first… Atwood’s
Penelope has learnt self-sufficiency the hard way... Atwood
makes her guarded, careful of her privacy, and has her speak
in sardonic, no-nonsense prose. The tension between her
intelligent disenchantment and the maids’ playful, painful,
lascivious poetry gives this book a thrilling and persistent
resonance.”
Layers of Storytelling
• Atwood’s idea of a layered narrative echoes,
in itself, the original epic poem (Homer relates
the tale of Odysseus, and Odysseus, in turn,
relates his tale to the King Alcinous/his court).
Atwood is relying on an idea called
intertextuality.
Intertextuality
• Definition: the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts
• Essence: Texts are not individual, isolated, closed-off entities—
but, rather, exists always in relation to others. We owe more to
other texts than to their makers.
• First Proponent: Julia Kristeva, 1960s, who conceptualized axes
of meaning, declaring ‘every text is from the outset under the
jurisdiction of other discourses which impose a [3D] universe on
it’:
text
author
reader
other texts
Intertextuality
DOES MEAN
DOES NOT MEAN
•
Meaning of a text being dependent
upon and shaped by other texts
• Mere ‘influence’ of one
writer on another
•
Status of ‘authorship’ is
problematized (author is now
orchestrator, not originator)
•
Looking at a text as a
multidimensional space Reflected in
the blurring of genre lines
•
Readers now create authors. (Death
of author, birth of reader.)
• Mere allusions or spoofs
(though these are a sort of
self-conscious facet of
intertextuality)
Applying the Concept
• How did your experience with modern rap songs
potentially color your reading of The Scarlet Letter?
• How did your experience with romance movies
potentially color your reading of Wuthering Heights
and/or the love sonnets?
• How have your history studies colored your readings
of the cultural context of The Stranger and/or the
political context of Macbeth?
Intertextuality, Continued.
• Every reading is always a rewriting (by individuals and/or societies,
consciously and/or unconsciously).
How does this make sense when we think of cultural context?
• A text’s unity lies not in its origin, but in its destination (Barthes).
• “[T]exts come before us as the always-already-read; we apprehend
them through the sedimented layers of previous interpretations”
(Jameson)
Intertextuality
• “No one today…can read a
famous novel or poem; look at
a famous painting, drawing or
sculpture; listen to a famous
piece of music; or watch a
famous play or film without
being conscious of the contexts
in which the text had been
reproduced, drawn upon,
alluded to, parodied and so on.
Such contexts constitute a
primary frame which the reader
cannot avoid drawing upon in
interpreting the text.
No Text Is An Island
• Intertextuality blurs the boundaries not only
between texts, but between texts and the
world of lived experience.
• Where does a text 'begin' and 'end'? What is
'text' and what is 'context'? The mediums of
television and the World Wide Web highlight
this issue: both exist in a sort of “permeable
flow” rather than as a series of discrete texts.
Each text exists within a vast 'society of texts'
in various genres and media: no text is an
island entire of itself.
Readers construct authors.
• Ponder: How might your personal perceptions
of gender roles and fidelity color your
response to The Penelopiad?
• Link to Major Theme: Story-Telling and StoryListening (multiple vantage points, reliability,
authorship questions, etc)
TONE:
• D•
•
•
•
IDLS-
Diction (specific word choice,
loaded words, connotations)
Images
Details
Language (“overall” language)
Sentence Structure (sentence
length, variety)
Model of Tone Proof Paragraph
•
•
•
•
•
•
Goal: Atwood creates for the maids in “The Chorus Line: A Rope-Jumping
Rhyme” a ______ tone by __________ in order to ________.”
Conclusion/ “Claim”: Coarse, accusing, indignant
Quote bank: “you scratched your itch,” “it was not fair,” “scrubbed the blood
/ paramours from floors,” “you watched us fall”
The “how” via DIDLS: informal/low language overall, irreverent and
unsettling imagery, syntax creates whimsical poetic rhyme that’s decidedly
ironic juxtaposition to the subject (including title of chapter here, as well,”
syntax is accusing with “you” and “we” beginning phrases, details of blood /
raised hand, etc.
The “why”: Atwood wants to knock Odyssey off his epic pedestal,
undermine his stature, make us uncomfortable and make us feel guilty that
we’ve believed in him for so long, feel sympathy for the maidens – and,
ultimately, question the validity of storytelling.
Goal: Atwood creates for the maids in “The Chorus Line: A Rope-Jumping
Rhyme” a coarse, accusing, and indignant tone by ironically juxtaposing low
diction and whimsical, lyrical syntax with weighty accusations and unsettling
imagery in order to make readers question the validity of the ancient epic,
its hero, and storytelling in general.”
Warm-Up: Thoughtful Theses
• Consider this acronym to help you create strong theses: NHWD
(Name of author + the “how” + “the why” + check to see if it’s
debatable). (Think NHWH: No Homework Would Be Divine!)
• Example:
– Topic: Authors consciously manipulate their narrative strategies.
– Thesis: “Atwood strategically manipulates narrative strategy by creating
multiple first person narrative voices to emphasize the impossibility of
absolute, finite truths.” (yes—debatable)
• Now, you try: Create a thesis for each of these topics:
– (1) The bird motif in The Penelopiad
– (2) Double standards amongst genders/classes in The Penelopiad
– (3) Narrative justice (retribution via storytelling)