HENK03909U English - Free topic 11: Women Writers’ Revisions of Male Texts (exam form A,B,C)

What happens when female writers base their texts on traditional fairytales, the Bible or Homer?

We shall discuss Angela Carter's short story The Bloody Chamber (1979) which is a revision of the fairytale Bluebeard with a new ending, Fay Weldon's novel The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1983) with a protagonist who turns herself into a female Lucifer or She-Devil to get revenge on her husband who leaves her for a younger, beautiful woman, Margaret Atwood's novel The Robber Bride (1993) which is based on the fairytale The Robberbridegroom but has a female protagonist, Zenia, who breaks into and disrupts the lives of three women, Tony, Charis and Roz, and Atwood's novel The Penelopiad (2005) in which patient, long-suffering, faithful Penelope is given a voice in an experimental text.