The Medusa gaze in contemporary women's fiction : petrifying, maternal and redemptive / by Gillian M. E. Alban.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alban, Gillian M. E., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fiction--Women authors--History and criticism.

Fiction.

Medusa (Gorgon).

Medusa.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (299 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Newcastle upon Tyne, England : Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.

Summary:

The Medusa Gaze offers striking insights into the desires and frustrations of women through the narratives of the impressive contemporary novelists Angela Carter, Toni Morrison, Sylvia Plath, Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, Iris Murdoch, Jeanette Winterson, Jean Rhys and Michèle Roberts. It illuminates women's power and vulnerability as they construct their own egos in opposition to their hostile alter egos or others facing them in their mirrors, and fixes a panoptic gaze on the women stalking its pages, as they learn how to deflect the menacing gaze of others by returning their look defiantly back at them. Some stare back and win assurance; others are stared down, reduced to psychic trauma, madness and even suicide. The book shows how Freud's, Sartre's and Lacan's androcentric views define the Medusa m/other as monstrous, and how the efforts of mothers to nurture may be slighted as inadequate or devouring. It presents Medusa and other goddess figures as inspirational, repelling harm through the 'evil eye' of their powerful gaze. Conversely, it also shows women who are condemned as monstrous Gorgons, trapped in enmity, rivalry and rage. Representing English, American and African American, Canadian and Caribbean writing, the works explored here include realistic, social narrative and magical realist writings, in addition to tales of the past and dystopian narratives.

Contents:

Intro

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter One

The Ego-Forming Mirror and Gaze

The Look of the Medusa Head-Reverted with Laughter

Learning before the Mirror

The Alienating Mirror Gaze

The Apotropaic, Petrifying Medusa Gaze

The Objectifying Medusa Gaze

Chapter Two

Looking-Glass Vision and the Double

Beautified Marionette Dolls

Objectified Puppets

Joint Shadows and Mirrored Images

Overlapping Alter Egos and Doppelgängers

Symbiotic Sisters

Destruction or Reciprocity

Chapter Three

The Terrible Medusa Mother

Mother as Monstrous

Medea: The Mother's Devouring Love

The Abandoning Mother and Daughterly Longing

Electra Hate or Reluctant Symbiosis

Electra Love-Hate and Paternal Longing

Chapter Four

Sacrifice in Mothering

Birth and Mothering: The Thing Itself

Tough Mother or Grandma

Matriarchal Survivors

Demeter/Persephone

Mother-Daughter Longing

Maternal Longing at All Cost

Chapter Five

Divine Goddess

Ancient Goddesses Images

Alternate Gospels' Madonna

Redemptive Female Divinity

Medusa's Redemptive Evil Eye

Madonna Visions

Mother Goddess Satire

Chapter Six

Power Crazed Women

Monstrous Witch

Predator and Her Victims

Terribly Fascinating Interrelationships

Medusa Fury

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed October 23, 2017).

ISBN:

1-5275-0274-0

OCLC:

1005613433