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Unweaving the Shroud: A Feminist Stylistic Analysis of the Chorus of the Maids in Atwood's <i>The Penelopiad</i>

Article

Last updated: 24 Dec 2024

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Abstract

This paper investigates the function of the chorus of the maids in Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad and analyzes its most important episodes from a feminist stylistic perspective. The aim of the paper is to explore how textual justice is achieved for the maids as subalterns though structure and language. The main argument is based on the recent feminist readings of the Odyssey where the murder of the maids by Odysseus upon his return on the ground of their collaboration with Penelope's suitors comes out as unfair and unjustified since they were slaves and only acted upon Penelope's instructions as part of her scheme to keep the suitors entertained and occupied. It is a situation where class and gender oppression leads to the maids' loss of agency, voice and even their own lives. This paper examines how the text as a contemporary adaptation of the Odyssey allows the maids a representational space linguistically and structurally.

DOI

10.21608/cse.2023.207020.1139

Keywords

feminism, subalterns, Representation, justice, voice

Authors

First Name

Dalia

Last Name

Youssef

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University

Email

arts.instructor@yahoo.com

City

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Orcid

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Volume

2023

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

42745

Issue Date

2023-08-01

Receive Date

2023-04-21

Publish Date

2023-08-01

Page Start

109

Page End

125

Print ISSN

0575-1624

Online ISSN

2682-2504

Link

https://cse.journals.ekb.eg/article_331854.html

Detail API

https://cse.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=331854

Order

10

Type

Original Article

Type Code

738

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Cairo Studies in English

Publication Link

https://cse.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Unweaving the Shroud: A Feminist Stylistic Analysis of the Chorus of the Maids in Atwood's <i>The Penelopiad</i>

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Type

Article

Created At

24 Dec 2024