REWRITING HER-STORY

What the Popularity of Feminist Retellings of the Classics Can Tell Us About the Current Publishing Climate

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As we enter the fourth wave of feminism, propped up by the prominence of the internet and social media, the twenty-first century has birthed a popular cultural trend of ‘herstory’ - that is, the female perspective on history - being rewritten (Grady, 2018). The stories of vilified and victimised female figures are being reclaimed through art and culture. This trend is none so more obvious than in literature, particularly in the recent re-imaginings of classical Greek mythology. Let’s delve into the recent popularity of feminist twists on the work of the ancient wordsmiths, featuring heavily on bestseller and award lists in the past few years, and examine why this niche genre has become so integral to contemporary women’s fiction.

The most prominent examples are the works of authors Natalie Haynes, Madeline Miller and Pat Barker, who have collectively sold over a million copies of their various mythological revisionist titles. Before 2017, there were very few examples of this sub-genre, with most feminist Classics fans turning to

Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad.

Miller is an academic by trade, who used her intellectual credentials and meticulous research to create the Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlisted novel, Circe. The 2018 bestseller chronicles the life of Circe, the banished witch who features as both a villain and love interest in Homer’s Odyssey. Miller’s next novel, which will explore the life of Persephone, the notorious Queen of the Underworld, is expected to reach a similar level of success, already causing a stir among younger fans on TikTok and Reddit.

Barker’s re-imaginings of The Iliad in 2018’s The Silence of the Girls and The Aeneid in 2021’s The Women of Troy, centre on the experiences of the female victims of the terrible destruction and aggression of Homer and Virgil’s male heroes. Haynes’s A Thousand Ships follows a similar trend of exposing the misogyny of the Trojan War.

These authors recast infamous characters, such as Circe and Helen of Troy, as the heroes of their own narratives, using modern feminist values to encourage sympathy for their fictional plight, and promoting a wider understanding of Greek mythology outside of academia. Their work has proven popular with Young Adult readers. Miller’s debut The Song of Achilles, a queer retelling of The Iliad, became a ‘BookTok’ favourite. Many young readers are put off of classical literature due to the triggering themes and outdated values that populates much internationally celebrated writing. While the contemporary adaptations still include depictions of violent misogyny, from the victim’s perspective, these events are handled in a more delicate manner, giving the women agency and highlighting the awful behaviour of male protagonists. The horrors inflicted upon the female characters are exposed and they are not just treated as the expected casualties of war.

This niche genre is not only popular due to its progressiveness. Ancient Greek mythology has proven durable in popular culture throughout history; stories of greed, love, lust, political intrigue, and familial spats are relatable and entertaining to a contemporary audience. During the pandemic, a time of personal suffering, loneliness and distrust in power, many readers found comfort in cosy crime, espionage, and modern twists on familiar fiction (Tivnan, 2021). An interest in astrology, tarot and spirituality also spiked, with many young people questioning their own paths and life decisions during national lockdowns. As a form of self-care, Roff Farrar compares astrology to therapy in the way that young adults can ‘look deeper inside and try to improve and ultimately understand [themselves]’ (Roff Farrar, 2022). This combination of cultural renaissance and spiritual awakening is key to the popularity of mythological retellings with a feminist spin, and one not entirely isolated to this century’s plague. In Defoe’s A Journal of a Plague Year, he details the tendency for sufferers to turn to witchcraft, myth, and astrology to deal with the turmoil of the medieval pandemic (Defoe, 1722).

History loves to repeat itself and it always will. While many may argue that revisionist literature is a form of censorship, if we retain a version of the original texts in the public domain, it is perfectly acceptable to re-imagine the tales of the past through a modern lens (Cummins, 2021). Miller, Barker, and Haynes are not the first, and will certainly not be the last, to make these iconic stories their own. The work of Virgil, Homer, and Sophocles, along with Shakespeare, Austen, and Dickens, will continue to prove relatable and inspiring for generations to come. Providing a voice to marginalised and villainised characters will only help to engage a wider audience with the classic literary canon.

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Bibliography

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Cummins (2021) ‘The Women of Troy by Pat Barker Review – a Troy Story for the Sisterhood’, The Guardian, 22 August. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/aug/22/the-women-of-troy-by-pat-barker-review-a-troy-story-for-the-sisterhood> (Accessed: 3 January 2022). Defoe (2008) A Journal of the Plague Year. London: 1722. Grady (2018) ‘The Waves of Feminism, and Why People Keep Fighting Over Them, Explained’, Vox, 20 March. Available at: <https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth> (Accessed: 29 December 2021). Roff Farrar (2022) ‘What’s Behind the Rise in the Popularity of Astrology?’, Pan Macmillan, 6 January. Available at: <https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/lifestyle-wellbeing/the-popularity-of-astrology> (Accessed: 7 January 2022). Tivnan (2021) ‘Isolation, the Ancients, LGBTQ and Espionage Among Key Frankfurt Trends’, The Bookseller. Available at: <https://www.thebookseller.com/news/classics-modern-twist-espionage-and-isolation-among-key-fbf-2021-trends-1281746> (Accessed: 29 December 2021).