The Penelopiad and Weight: Contemporary Parodic and Burlesque Transformations of Classical Myths

This essay closely examines the narrative form of Margaret Atwood’s and Jeanette Winterson’s revisionary stories about the mythical figures Penelope and Atlas. Both novelists rely on the narrative tools of parody and burlesque travesty to challenge the genre conventions of high epic art. They parodically use mythologizing and de-mythologizing devices to achieve a semantic transformation of the classical myths and employ burlesque travesty to bring about their stylistic modification. The revision of the ancient mythical stories is underscored by the prominent use of the trickster transformation archetype. In both The Penelopiad and Weight, the protagonists wish to liberate themselves from the limitations imposed on them by the traditional narratives. Atlas’s desire to break free from the boundaries of the ancient epic story world is explored alongside the desire of Winterson’s alter ego to free herself from the weight of her personal past and the burden of tyrannical (fictional) conventions.