The Penelopiad
Event Details
After our journey through The Odyssey, we return to Ithaca – because the story is not finished.
This time, we turn to Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, in which Penelope speaks back to myth, and the twelve maids step out of the shadows to offer a version of events long buried beneath the authority of epic.
“I’ve chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and to the twelve hanged maids. The maids form a chanting and singing Chorus which focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of The Odyssey: what led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to? The story as told in The Odyssey doesn’t hold water: there are too many inconsistencies. I’ve always been haunted by the hanged maids; and, in The Penelopiad, so is Penelope herself.”
Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad
What happens when the waiting voice begins to speak? And what shifts when those previously held at the edges of the epic refuse silence?
In this study, we will read key passages together, moving between Penelope’s account, the insistent chorus of the maids, and the unsettled space between loyalty and survival, story and accusation, silence and testimony. We will consider how myth opens up when re-told from beneath its surface – and what begins to emerge from between the cracks.
JOINING DETAILS:
- Single meeting study, live on Zoom, led by Alison Cable
- Wednesday 10 June 7.00-8.30 pm (UK time)
- Recommended edition: The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (Canongate, 2018, ISBN-13: 978-1841956459)
- Free of charge but please use the booking form below to register.
