Regarding Penelope: From Character to Poetics - Softcover

Felson, Nancy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0806129611 ISBN 13: 9780806129617

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997

Synopsis

A coy tease, enchantress, adulteress, irresponsible mother, hard-hearted wife--such are the possible images of Penelope that Homer playfully presents to listeners and readers of the Odyssey, and that his narration ultimately contradicts or fails to confirm. In Regarding Penelope, Nancy Felson-Rubin explores the relationship between Homer's construction of Penelope and his more general approach to poetic production and reception.

Felson-Rubin begins by considering Penelope as an object of male gazes (those of Telemachus, Odysseus, the suitors, and Agamemnon's ghost) and as a subject acting from her own desire. Focusing on how the audience might try to predict Penelope's fate when confronted with the different ways the male characters envision her, she develops the notion of "possible plots" as structures in the poem that initiate the plots Penelope actually plays out. She then argues that Homer's manipulation of Penelope's character maintains the narrative fluidity and the dynamics of the Odyssey, and she reveals how the oral performance of the poem teases and captivates its audience in the same way Penelope and Odysseus entrap each other in their courtship dance. Homer, Felson-Rubin further explains, exploits the similarities between the poetic and erotic domains, often using similar terminology to describe them.

About this title

Synopsis:

This text first considers the character of Penelope from the poem "Odyssey" as the object of male gazes and as a subject acting from her own desire, and then it develops the notion of "possible plots" as structures in the poem that co-exist with the plots Penelope actually plays out.

About the Author:

Nancy Felson-Rubin is Professor of Classics at the University of Georgia.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0806129611
• ISBN 13: 9780806129617
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232