Female gaze and rewriting myths. Margaret Atwood, Christa Wolf, María Zambrano

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to analyze feminist rewritings of classical myths, focusing on the works of Christa Wolf, Margaret Atwood and María Zambrano. Starting from Laura Mulvey’s concept of the female gaze as a renegotiation of the female image through a dialogue with the male eye that has long observed it, we show how these authors used different narrative strategies to subvert traditional representations of female figures. The analysis focuses on the value of interior monologue, narrative polyphony and interstitial dialogue. The authors’ narrative choices are methodologically put into dialogue with reflections of major feminist theorists such as Mulvey, Kristeva and Butler. The results of the research show how these rewritings convey a gendered focus. Its hybridization with tradition resists the purity of the literary genre and the representations of female figures.