Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad:Myth Rewriting And Canada

Margaret Atwood (1939-) is one of the most influential writers in world literature. As a female leader of Canadian literature, she is credited as "Queen of Canadian Literature". Her new novella The Penelopiad, published in 2005, is a rewriting work based on Homer’s epic The Odyssey. It is one representative work of her several attempts on myth rewriting.The novella subverts the traditional narrative mode and content of the myth, giving Penelope and the twelve maids’voices to explore the justice of twelve maids’ death. Through rewriting the myth, Atwood subverts the stereotyped images of the male and female characters in the myth The Odyssey, and supplies neglected truths in the myth. In this way, Atwood not only brings the other side of the myth to the surface, but also makes the history of Canada’s feminism; Canada’s international status and immigration history come out of the myth’s surface.The thesis starts from three aspects how Atwood alludes to the status quo of Canada in her rewriting work of The Odyssey. Firstly, the thesis mainly elaborates Atwood’s new image of Penelope. Penelope is portrayed as a faithful wife in Homer’s The Odyssey, while in Atwood’s The Penelopiad, she is not only a faithful wife, but has been depicted as an independent woman who pursues sex equality. The new image of Penelope alludes to Canadian women’s struggle and contribution which has been overlooked in the Feminism Movement. Secondly, Atwood has recasted the male characters in the myth. In The Penelopiad, Zeus and Odysseus are no longer the heroic figures depicted in the myth. Atwood gives a prominent depiction of their negative images. Zeus can be easily deceived, and Odysseus can be easily controlled. The subversion of Zeus and Odysseus, the revelation of their weakness and folly actually can be seen as a projection of Canada’s subordination in white society. Thirdly, Atwood has given special concerns to the minor female characters in The Odyssey. Homer does not give a detailed description of the twelve maids, while Atwood focuses on the depiction of twelve maids’ fate, explores the reasons that lead to their tragedy, and their neglected and indelible contributions. The ardent concern for the twelve maids, that is, the concern for the neglected lower class, hints obliquely at the picture of Canada’s immigration history. Through myth rewriting, Atwood shows the lies and neglected truths in the myth and hints at Canada’s history:Canada has been in the shadow of the big powers in the white countries; its contributions to Feminism Movement has been overlooked, and the poor non-white immigrants’ miserable history has not been critically reviewed. In rewriting work The Odyssey, Atwood expresses her great concern for Canadian development and sympathy for the immigrants.