Penelope's renown : meaning and indeterminacy in the Odyssey /
Saved in:
Author / Creator: | Katz, Marylin A., 1942- author. |
---|---|
Imprint: | Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1991] ©1991 |
Description: | 1 online resource (236 pages) |
Language: | English |
Subject: | |
Format: | E-Resource Book |
URL for this record: | http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11277166 |
ISBN: | 9781400861873 140086187X 0691067961 9780691067964 0691607370 9780691607375 |
---|---|
Digital file characteristics: | data file |
Notes: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-207) and indexes. In English. Print version record. |
Summary: | Noted for her contradictory words and actions, Penelope has been a problematic character for critics of the Odyssey, many of whom turn to psychological explanations to account for her behavior. In a fresh approach to the problem, Marylin Katz links Penelope closely with the strategies that govern the overall design of the narrative. By examining its apparent inconsistencies and its deferral of truth and closure, she shows how Penelope represents the indeterminacy that is characteristic of the narrative as a whole. Katz argues that the controlling narrative device of the poem is the paradigm of Agamemnon's fateful return from the Trojan War, narrated in the opening lines of the Odyssey. This story operates not only as a point of reference for Odysseus' homecoming but also as an alternative plot, and the danger that Penelope will betray Odysseus as Clytemnestra did Agamemnon is kept alive throughout the first half of the poem. Once Odysseus reaches Ithaca, however, the paradigm of Helen's faithlessness substitutes for that of Clytemnestra. The narrative structure of the Odyssey is thus based upon an intratextual revision of its own paradigm, through which the surface meaning of Penelope's words and actions is undermined though never openly discredited. Originally published in 1991. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. |
Other form: | Print version: Katz, Marylin A. Penelope's renown : meaning and indeterminacy in the Odyssey. Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1991] xii, 223 pages ; 25 cm 9780691607375 |
Standard no.: | 10.1515/9781400861873 |
Similar Items
-
Penelope's renown : meaning and indeterminacy in the Odyssey /
by: Katz, Marylin A., 1942-
Published: (1991) -
Regarding Penelope : from character to poetics /
by: Felson, Nancy, 1943-
Published: (1994) -
Le chant de Pénélope : poétique du tissage féminin dans l'Odyssée /
by: Papadopoulou-Belmehdi, Ioanna
Published: (1994) -
Taking her seriously : Penelope and the plot of Homer's Odyssey /
by: Heitman, Richard Donald
Published: (2001) -
Grecità femminile : l'altra Penelope /
by: Lanza, Letizia
Published: (2001)