Papers/Chapters by Emily Hauser
Helios 47 (1): 39-69, 2020
Book 1 of the Odyssey presents us with the first bard-figure of the poem, singing what in many wa... more Book 1 of the Odyssey presents us with the first bard-figure of the poem, singing what in many ways is an analogue to the Odyssey with "the return of the Greeks"; yet when Penelope appears, it is to attempt to put an end to his song. I use this scene as a starting point to suggest that Penelope is deeply implicated in narrative endings in the Odyssey. Looking at the end or τέλος of the poem through a systematic study of its "closural allusions, " I argue that a teleological analysis of Penelope's character in relation to endings may both resolve some of the issues in her interpretation thus far, and open up new avenues for the reading of the Odyssey as a poem informed by endings.
Synthesis 12: 55-75, 2020
For contemporary female authors, Sappho is a literary forebear who is both a model for women's wr... more For contemporary female authors, Sappho is a literary forebear who is both a model for women's writing and a reminder of the ways in which women have been excluded from the literary canon. Poet and novelist Erica Jong takes up the challenge to gender and authorship posed by Sappho in her 2003 novel, Sappho's Leap. Jong weaves Sappho's poetry into her fiction to both complement the Sapphic tradition and to supplant it, proving that female poetry-and authorship-is alive and well, with Sappho continually mediated by and validating each subsequent writer in the female tradition. In addition, Jong's emphasis on the authentic expression of sexual desire as a bridge to authorship transcends gender binaries, turning Sappho's Leap into a study of authorship that is not confined to gender. This enables Jong to shift the debate away from the sense of burden placed on female authors post-Sappho and to transform her Sappho into a positive role model for all authors, turning the focus towards a poetics of passion and away from prescriptive assumptions of the relationship between gender and authorship. "Of course they despise us," said Eleanor. "At the same time how do you account for this-I made enquiries among the artists. Now, no woman has ever been an artist, has she, Polls?" "Jane-Austen-Charlotte-Brontë-George-Eliot," cried Poll, like a man crying muffins in a back street. "Damn the woman!" someone exclaimed. "What a bore she is!" "Since Sappho there has been no female of first rate-" Eleanor began, quoting from a weekly newspaper. "It's now well known that Sappho was the somewhat lewd invention of Professor Hobkin," Ruth interrupted. Virginia Woolf, A Society 1 Despite the fact that we've had Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Jane Austen, the Brontës, Colette, Virginia Woolf, etc., etc., etc., there is still the feeling that women's writing is a lesser class of writing, that to write about what goes on in the nursery or the bedroom is not as important as what goes on in the battlefield…
TAPA 149 (2): 163-177, 2019
There is currently high demand for creative reworkings of the classical world, from books to tele... more There is currently high demand for creative reworkings of the classical world, from books to television series to video games. This article asks how creativity might sit together with the academic discipline of Classics and explores examples of the work being done across the boundaries of academia and creative practice by classicists and practitioners. Several ways in which creativity and Classics can be mutually productive and beneficial across all stages of an academic career and different areas of the discipline are put forward, from collaborative research to outreach and engagement to innovative teaching.
Reading Poetry, Writing Genre: English Poetry and Literary Criticism in Dialogue with Classical Scholarship, 2018
In an important article written in 1986-one of the first to seriously and critically address fema... more In an important article written in 1986-one of the first to seriously and critically address female epic as a genre and the 'anxiety of authorship' that surrounds it-Susan Stanford Friedman noted that 'epic. .. has continued to invoke the inscriptions of gender implicit in Homer. .. as father of [the] discourse' (Friedman 1986: 203). Epic's traditional focus on men and the deeds of men on the pattern of Homer, on race/nation formation (and hence 'fatherhood') and its circulation through male patterns of literary production (male bard to male audience) from Homer until at least the seventeenth century, have created a cultural association between Homeric epic, epic genre, and (western norms of) masculinity (Friedman 1986: 205). 1 Female epics-that is, epics written by women writers-have similarly interacted with Homer (and the criticism that surrounds him) as the foundational figure of the genre. 2 In this chapter I want to take the encoding of genre and gender norms around Homer in the history of epic, to look at how the development of female epic responds to and interplays with Homeric scholarship and the literary criticism of epic. 3 Focusing on two major and influential texts in the history of the formation of female epic-Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh (1856) and H.D. 's Helen in Egypt (1961) 4-I suggest that each female epicist is deliberately interacting with, and defining herself in counterpoint to, a different landmark point in the history of Homeric scholarship. In particular, I will propose that the often-noted generic flexibility of female epic derives specifically from the authors' complex engagement with contemporary movements in Homeric scholarship. 5 Female epic-crossing between female-gendered authorship and the expectations of a traditionally masculine genre; engaging with Homer and yet always (and consciously) not Homer-has, by its paradoxical self-definition as both 35295.indb 151 30/
Reading Poetry, Writing Genre: English Poetry and Literary Criticism in Dialogue with Classical Scholarship, 2018
third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were ... more third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
Classical Receptions Journal 10 (2): 109-126, 2018
In this article, I explore how Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (2005) provides a retrospective v... more In this article, I explore how Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (2005) provides a retrospective vision of an Odyssey that has already happened — and, by so doing, opens up an extended investigation of what it means to receive the texts and myths of the classical past. By responding to and reformulating the tale of the Odyssey after the event, Penelope’s storytelling mirrors the process of reception — what James Porter has called a ‘retrospective’ form of reception, where the classical is ‘identifiable only après coup’ (2006: 53). But I also suggest that there is a second layer to Atwood’s allegorizing of classical reception in The Penelopiad: one which, by consciously correcting the narrative of the Odyssey via the subversive counterstory of the maids, showcases a vision of reception as retelling and complicating classical texts, both by inserting a new (and often subversive) narrative, and by emending the multiform text of the Odyssey to the ‘correct’ edition. The Penelopiad thus becomes an exploration of what it means to interpret narratives within the classical tradition — suggesting that we are not only respondents to, but also, like the maids, direct participants in the classical past.
Eugesta 6: 151-186, 2016
This paper explores evidence for female authorship terminology in extant poetic texts written in ... more This paper explores evidence for female authorship terminology in extant poetic texts written in Latin by women. It begins by first considering male authorship in Latin literature, before moving on to three case studies of women’s writing: an elegy by Sulpicia, an anonymous graffito from Pompeii, and the Virgilian cento of Proba. By foregrounding the ‘subversive mask’ of female poetic speech in Rome, the paper uncovers a subtextual rhetoric of authorship where female poets both respond to and subvert male authorship paradigms. It thus argues for the importance of analyzing authorship terminology in Latin literature through the lens of gender.
Keywords:
author – authorship – women – Sulpicia – Proba – auctor – vates – poeta
"In her own words: The semantics of female authorship in ancient Greece, from Sappho to Nossis"
Ramus 45 (2): 133–164, 2016
The study of authorship terminology in the ancient world has thus far focused on terms used by ma... more The study of authorship terminology in the ancient world has thus far focused on terms used by male authors to describe their craft. Three case studies from the female-authored corpus of ancient Greek literature are assessed, Sappho, Eurydice, and Nossis, in an attempt to identify whether female authors in ancient Greece possessed the terminology to articulate and explore their identity as women who wrote. A shared language of metaphor, relationship and community is discovered in their discussions of authorship, shedding important insights on how ancient Greek female poets viewed the relationship between authorship and gender.
Books by Emily Hauser
For the Immortal
London: Transworld, 2018
For the Winner
London: Transworld, 2017
For the Most Beautiful
London: Transworld, 2016
Edited Volumes by Emily Hauser
Reading Poetry, Writing Genre: English Poetry and Literary Criticism in Dialogue with Classical Scholarship.
Bloomsbury, 2018
Book Reviews by Emily Hauser
In producing a collection of sources which illuminate the lives of Roman women, Sheila K. Dickiso... more In producing a collection of sources which illuminate the lives of Roman women, Sheila K. Dickison and Judith P. Hallett have made a valuable addition to the growing number of sourcebooks and readers introducing students to the lives and experiences of women in antiquity. A Roman Women Reader is a stimulating teaching aid that enables a combined learning approach to Latin, the ancient world, and gender studies. The publication collates passages from works that are usually excluded from standard Latin textbooks and looks beyond the traditional canon of authors such as Catullus, Cicero, Caesar, Virgil, Horace, Ovid and Livy, to embrace a broad selection of readings from different time periodsthe inclusion of archaic authors like Plautus and Cato the Elder is particularly unusual. The passages are drawn from a range of genres such as drama, elegy, history, biography, letter-writing and satire. Various types of media are successfully incorporated, from literary texts, to funerary inscriptions, to the Vindolanda tablets. The Reader subverts the paradigm for Latin learning which does not consider women intrinsically, as individuals or as members of larger social entities, and which thus fails to explore the problematic representation of women, or emphasises the misogynistic sentiments often voiced by ancient authors. Dickison and Hallett deliberately situate the publication within the rise in scholarly interest in ancient women"s experiences, lives, and depictions. At an affordable price, the Reader is designed to broaden accessibility to this burgeoning field of research beyond the academic specialist to college and university students who can read, or are learning to read, more advanced Latin. The function of the work to facilitate a critical awareness of gender in ancient source material is therefore of primary importance.
Outreach by Emily Hauser
Iris Annual, October 2012: 32-36, 2012
Uploads
Papers/Chapters by Emily Hauser
Keywords:
author – authorship – women – Sulpicia – Proba – auctor – vates – poeta
Books by Emily Hauser
Edited Volumes by Emily Hauser
Book Reviews by Emily Hauser
Outreach by Emily Hauser
Keywords:
author – authorship – women – Sulpicia – Proba – auctor – vates – poeta