A Penelopean Poetics, Reweaving the Feminine in Homer's Odyssey

by Barbara Clayton

A Penelopean Poetics looks at the relationship between gender ideology and the self-referential poetics of the Odyssey through the figure of Penelope. She is a cunning story-teller; her repeated reweavings of Laertes' shroud a figurative replication of the process of oral poetic composition itself. Penelope's web is thus a discourse and it can be construed specifically as feminine. Her gendered poetics celebrates process, multiplicity, and ambiguity and it resists phallocentric discourse by undermining stable and fixed meanings. Penelope's poetics become a discursive thread through which different feminine voices can realize their resistant capacities. Author Barbara Clayton's work contributes to discussions in the classics as well as literary criticism, sex and gender studies, and women's studies.

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good solid theory -- occasionally strays into the realm of "please stop pretending your technical vocabulary means anything", but the use of and reliance on Cixous and Irigaray et al is well-handled. I tend to point and laugh at Lacanian analysis of pretty much anything, too.

But the discussion of how more recent authors have treated and reinvented and rewoven Penelope is quite good, especially since it means I can track down her bibliography and READ ALL THE PENELOPE REMIXES, which is basically all I want in life. \o/! I'm also interested in the speculation about what it means that Penelope's weaving is often recast as other kinds of fiber arts — I am virtually certain that Clayton is not a fiber artist herself, which is a pity, as I suspect that would have enriched that discussion a non-zero amount.

Basically, brace yourself for academic language that conceals some genuinely interesting ideas and what looks like a solid bibliography, if one that has a surprising dearth of articles.

[Mariana · Rating 2 out of 5]

The last chapter is a waste of time, especially if you, like me, are interested in the Homeric poetry and the intertextuality rather than the modern retells or inspiration for modern books that can be connected with Penelope.
Read half of this last chapter, and there is no benefit.

[Michael Farrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting, not purely for feminists, yet i felt it could have taken a step further, away from characters, and homer, and considered weaving itself as the force, the writer