Reinterpreting Myths, Reinterpreting Women
3.0
creditsAverage Course Rating
This course aims to reflect on the most iconic myths of classical antiquity, to be re–read through the contribution of psychoanalytic theories. In class, we will analyze the ten proposed women mythological figures, to be divided according to three major categories of wicked wives and mothers, abandoned women, and nonhuman female monsters, in their evolutions through the centuries, in order to note and investigate their new meanings and interpretations. How, for example, can the maternal figure of Medea still be considered relevant today? What meaning does she carry, and in what ways has she been reinterpreted and rewritten by literature, art, and other humanistic fields? Likewise, what is the source of the fascination still associated with the tragic figures of Ariadne and Dido, or the terror caused by monstrous beings such as the Mermaids and Medusa? How has popular culture re–appropriated them, modernizing them, and making them iconic in fantasy films like Harry Potter, in famous TV series like Game of Thrones, in horror movies, or in Disney’s animated films? Students will be able to answer these questions during the course, focusing each week on a specific myth drawn from classical Greek and Latin literature and following it through its literary and artistic developments, especially in the context of Western culture.
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