Date of Award
Spring 5-2021
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Major
Classical Studies
First Advisor
Martha Risser
Abstract
This thesis explores the symbolic violence and misogyny present in Classical texts, and then compares them to modern feminist adaptations or retellings of the same stories. We explore the treatment of Briseis and other enslaved women in the Greek camp throughout the Iliad, and compare Homer’s perspective to Pat Barker’s in her book Silence of the Girls. We then look at Ovid’s Metamorphoses compared to Wake, Siren by Nina Maclaughlin, and finish with the comparison of Euripides’ plays Iphigenia at Aulis, Iphigenia Among the Taurians, and Hecuba to A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. The thesis concludes that the adaptations bring a previously unheard and marginalized perspective to light, and also work to undo some of the damage that the original stories did on women’s rights through to the present day, helping women to redetermine and reannounce what their role in their society should be.
Recommended Citation
Berner, Marisa, "An Analysis of Symbolic Violence in Classical Texts Comparatively to Modern Feminist Adaptations". Senior Theses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 2021.
Trinity College Digital Repository, https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/921
Included in
Classical Literature and Philology Commons, Other Classics Commons, Women's Studies Commons
