The Heroine in Western Literature: The Archetype and Her Reemergence in Modern Prose

by Meredith A. Powers

The impulse that prompts humans to envision themselves as heroic is as inherent to women as to men. The idealization of the hero, however, is an outgrowth of the more primary conception of the god. In Western culture the reduction and eventual denial of the feminine divine has affected cultural perception of feminine principles, particularly archetypal and autonomous patterns.
This book delves first into the literary strata from which the archetypes have been culled, the stories of the Bible and the myths of the Aegean, to look at how the characterization of the goddess was revised. Employing evidence from psychology, artifacts and pictorial art, the author shapes an outline for a more authentic figure. The obscure and muted goddess-heroine of ancient literature is then given detail by the articulate voices of the archetype as she reemerges in contemporary fiction.

240 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2000

Reviews

[Mackenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not that I necessarily disagreed with any of the points made here, and not that she didn't give sufficient data for each point made, but I would have enjoyed this study a little more if it hadn't been quite so biased...