Images of Persephone
Subtitle: feminist readings in Western literature
By: edited by Elizabeth T. Hayes.
Contributors: Hayes, Elizabeth T.
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Gainesville
Language: eng
Number of pages: 212
Subjects: Persephone (Greek deity) in literature; Women in literature; Feminism and literature
Description: Images of Persephone have appeared in the works of male and female writers for hundreds of years. Because the story of Persephone and Demeter is so moving, embodying archetypes of the "loving and terrible" mother and the rite of passage for women in patriarchal cultures, the myths resonates throughout Western consciousness.

These essays explore the myth through critical analysis of literary texts, the authors of which include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Atwood, Cixous, and Morrison. The essays converge at three important areas of study: the feminist/cultural, the archetypal, and the literary/textual. They explore women's relationships and experiences within patriarchal cultures that range from Homer's classical Greece to Cixous's postmodern France, from Chaucer's England to Alice Walker's contemporary America.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.