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Natsuo Kirino’s The Goddess Chronicle has been so far analyzed from various standpoints by researchers such as Copeland (2018), Dumas (2018), Qiao (2018), and Lianying (2018), most of them being connected to feminism. This article takes another approach and deals with the issue of trauma and death as a literary representation as portrayed in the novel. The paper demonstrates how implementing myth in a revised form helps Kirino to depict trauma in a literary text – the task that many researchers of trauma studies deem impossible. At the center of this paper’s analysis are the main mythologems of traditional Japanese culture retold from the female viewpoint, connecting the fate of the goddess to the fate of a mortal woman: the latter in many ways repeats what happened in the “divine” story. The repetitions create a mythological cyclical description of life as well as its tragedy perceived as traumatic experiences, which is characteristic of the writer’s novels, and outline a universal archetype of human behavior. This paper attempts to analyze these mythologemes in connection to trauma studies and shows that, if put in the fantastic (in this case, mythological) realm, representation of trauma becomes possible.

Natsuo Kirino’s The Goddess Chronicle has been so far analyzed from various standpoints by researchers such as Copeland (2018), Dumas (2018), Qiao (2018), and Lianying (2018), most of them being connected to feminism. This article takes another approach and deals with the issue of trauma and death as a literary representation as portrayed in the novel. The paper demonstrates how implementing myth in a revised form helps Kirino to depict trauma in a literary text – the task that many researchers of trauma studies deem impossible. At the center of this paper’s analysis are the main mythologems of traditional Japanese culture retold from the female viewpoint, connecting the fate of the goddess to the fate of a mortal woman: the latter in many ways repeats what happened in the “divine” story. The repetitions create a mythological cyclical description of life as well as its tragedy perceived as traumatic experiences, which is characteristic of the writer’s novels, and outline a universal archetype of human behavior. This paper attempts to analyze these mythologemes in connection to trauma studies and shows that, if put in the fantastic (in this case, mythological) realm, representation of trauma becomes possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revisionist mythmaking is a favourite strategy especially for women writers. They reread and rewrite oral, folk as well as mythic narratives, often giving new dimensions to the stereotyped and silenced women characters. Fairy tales have been thus retold numerous times breaking the Eurocentric patriarchal codes with which most of them were constructed. The paper attempts to read Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple as a Black Womanist retelling of the fairy tale 'Briar Rose' commonly known by the name "The Sleeping Beauty." As it analyses revisionist mythmaking by Walker, the paper highlights notions such as Black beauty and woman bonding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Lengua y Literatura Catalana, Gallega y Vasca is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the poems in Isabella Whitney’s two poetry collections, The Copy of a Letter (1567) and A Sweet Nosegay (1573) to trace a pro-woman argument in her works. In her poems, Whitney’s themes and subject matter point out that she is a marginal woman poet of sixteenth-century England since she assumes the role of a counsellor for the inexperienced women who might be manipulated by men. Instead of writing in a low-key manner as expected from the woman writers of the sixteenth century, she adopts an assertive and critical style in her poetry. By articulating this pro-woman argument in her poems, Whitney attacks Ovidian tradition and she re-reads and sometimes rewrites the stories of the traditionally silenced female figures in myths and male texts. Whitney seeks solutions for women who are culturally and socially trapped in the patriarchal texts.

Copyright of Selçuk University Journal of Faculty of Letters is the property of Selcuk Universitesi Edebiyat Fakultesi Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses is the property of Universidad de La Laguna and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)