Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Marilyn Patton

SOURCE: "'Lady Oracle': The Politics of the Body," in Ariel: A Review of International English Literature, Vol. 22, No. 4, October, 1991, pp. 29-48.

In the following essay, Patton analyzes Atwood's use of goddess mythology in Lady Oracle.

      I search instead for the others
      the ones left over,
      the ones who have escaped from these
      mythologies with barely their lives

Margaret Atwood wrote these words as if they were spoken by the Circe persona in the "Circe/Mud Poems" section of her book of poetry called You Are Happy. Atwood's career as poet, storyteller, and critic has been a coming to terms with "these mythologies," a general term for myths about women and myths about gender relations which have been inscribed in our literature. Her career has been also a search for an escape from "these mythologies." Although numerous critics have analyzed Atwood's work with myths about women, their readings have been limited to...
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