Feminist Revisions of Myth in Contemporary Literature

The article analyzes feminist rewriting of myth in modern literature, especially the reappropriation, re-reading, and destabilization of myths by women authors who dismantle patriarchal structures through illusory feminist incorporation of them. Myths, traditionally deployed to support gender hierarchies, are now re-conceived to bring female agency, female voice, and female subjectivity to the fore. The analysis of texts based on the feminist theories of literature and critique of mythology looks into The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, Circe by Madeline Miller, The Palace of Illusion by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, and The World Wife by Carol Ann Duffy. By re-voicing, inversion, and deconstruction of literary devices, such texts resist hegemonic cultural discourses and rebuild feminisms, remodeling myth-grounded traditions. The article contends that such revisions do not merely constitute restructuring of literary canon, but also form part of the larger discussions regarding identity, power, and representation in the coming century.