Reimagining Homeric Women : An Analysis of Pat Barker’s the Silence of the Girls

Abstract

Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (2005) and Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls (2018) both offer feminist reimaginings of Homeric women, particularly Penelope and Briseis, who were originally marginalized in The Odyssey and The Iliad, respectively. These novels draw on the original texts in a myriad of ways. The novels lend voice to the otherwise silent voices muzzled for years together in the maze of alternate discourses. These novels give voice to many prominent female characters that, in Homer’s epics, are often defined by their relationships with men rather than by their own experiences, emotions, and perspectives. By giving certain grounding to the female characters, the authors empower to speak freely of their own observations with a fair authority. The paper makes an attempt to analyse the host of ways through which women try to reclaim their space, voice and a definite position or standing to narrate the plight of the women in Homeric times.