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Author Magoulick, Mary J., author.

Title The goddess myth in contemporary literature and popular culture : a feminist critique / Mary J. Magoulick
Published Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2022]

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Description 1 online resource (259 pages) : illustrations
Contents Introduction: Appropriative Roots and (Un?)Feminist resonances of the goddess myth -- Chapter 1: Origins, prehistory, and attending to science -- Chapter 2: Mythic expressions of goddess culture and mythology - Chapter 3: Literary myths of matriarchy -- Chapter 4: The bad goddess in film and television -- Chapter 5: The good goddess in popular fiction -- Chapter 6: Mixed messages in modern myths -- Conclusion: Making mythic sense - Notes -- References -- Index
Summary "Goddess characters are revered as feminist heroes in the popular media of many cultures. However, these goddess characters often prove to be less promising and more regressive than most people initially perceive. Goddesses in film, television, and fiction project worldviews and messages that reflect mostly patriarchal culture (included essentialized gender assumptions), in contrast to the feminist, empowering levels many fans and critics observe. Building on critiques of other skeptical scholars, this feminist, folkloristic approach deepens how our remythologizing of the ancient past reflects a contemporary worldview and rhetoric. Structures of contemporary goddess myths often fit typical extremes as either vilified, destructive, dark, and chaotic (typical in film or television); or romanticized, positive, even utopian (typical in women's speculative fiction). This goddess spectrum persistently essentializes gender, stereotyping women as emotional, intuitive, sexual, motherly beings (good or bad), precluded from complex potential and fuller natures. Within apparent good-over-evil, pop-culture narrative frames, these goddesses all suffer significantly. However, a few recent intersectional writers, like N. K. Jemisin, breakthrough these dark reflections of contemporary power dynamics to offer complex characters who evince "hopepunk." They resist typical simplified, reductionist absolutes to offer messages that resonate with potential for today's world. Mythic narratives featuring goddesses often do, but need not, serve merely as ideological mirrors of our culture's still problematically reductionist approach to women and all humanity"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on February 07, 2022)
Subject Goddesses -- Mythology
Goddesses in literature.
Goddess religion.
Goddess religion in literature.
Goddesses in art.
Goddesses -- Miscellanea
Goddesses -- Folklore
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture
Goddess religion.
Goddess religion in literature.
Goddesses.
Goddesses in art.
Goddesses in literature.
Genre/Form Folklore.
Trivia and miscellanea.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2021046128
ISBN 9781496837097
1496837096
1496837088
9781496837073
149683707X
9781496837103
149683710X
9781496837080