Research Article
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Year 2023, Volume: 33 Issue: 1, 205 - 218, 04.07.2023

Asya Sakine Uçar

https://doi.org/10.26650/LITERA2022-1104177

Abstract

References

  • Alban, G. (2017). The Medusa Gaze in Contemporary Women’ s Fiction: Petrifying, Maternal and Redemptive. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. google scholar
  • Al-Hadi, H. (2010). Sleeping Beauties or Laughing Medusas: Myth and Fairy Tale in The Work of Angela Carter, A. S. Byatt and Marina Warner. (Doctoral Dissertation, Newcastle University, Newcastle). Retrieved from https:// theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/bitstream/10443/1258/1/Al-Hadi%2011.pdf google scholar
  • Bowers, S. R. (1990). Medusa and the Female Gaze. NWSA Journal, 2(2), 217-35, http://www.jstor.org/ stable/4316018. google scholar
  • Byatt, A.S. (1995). Medusa’s Ankles. The Matisse Stories. New York: Vintage Books. google scholar
  • Byatt, A.S. (2000). True Stories and the Facts in Fiction. On Histories and Stories: Selected Essays. London: Harvard University Press. google scholar
  • Byatt, A.S. (2000). Old Tales, New Forms. On Histories and Stories: Selected Essays. London: Harvard University Press. google scholar
  • Byatt, A.S. (1991). Passions of the Mind. London: Chatto & Windus. google scholar
  • Byatt, A.S. (2002). Portraits in Fiction. New York: Vintage Editions. google scholar
  • Campbell, J. (2004). A. S. Byatt and the Heliotropic Imagination. Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. google scholar
  • Cixous, H. & Cohen, K., & Cohen, P. (1976). The Laugh of the Medusa. Signs, 1(4), 875-893. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/3173239 google scholar
  • Elderfield, J. (1984). The Drawings of Henri Matisse. New York: Thames and Hudson, google scholar
  • Fishwick, S. (2004). Encounters with Matisse: Space, Art, and Intertextuality in A. S. Byatt’s “The Matisse Stories” and Marie Redonnet’s “Villa Rosa.” The Modern Language Review, 99(1), 52-64. https://doi. org/10.2307/3738865 google scholar
  • Flam, J. D. (1978). Matisse on Art. New York: E. P. Dutton. google scholar
  • Franken, C. (2001). A.S. Byatt: Art, Authorship, Creativity. New York: Palgrave. google scholar
  • Gardam, S. (2013). Sound Apples, Fair Flesh, and Sunlight. A. S. Byatt’s Feminist Critique of Matisse’s depictions of Women. In Nancy Pedri and Laurence Petit (Eds.), Picturing the language of Images (119-133). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. google scholar
  • Harries, E. W. (2008). Ancient Forms: Myth, Fairy Tale, and Narrative in A.S. Byatt’s Fiction. In Stephen Benson (Ed.), Contemporary Fiction and the Fairy Tale (74-98). Detroit: Wayne State University Press. google scholar
  • Heffernan, J. (1993). Museum of Words: The Poetics of Ekphrasis from Homer to Ashbery. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. google scholar
  • Lacan, J. (2006). Ecrits: The First Complete Edition in English. (Bruce Fink, Trans.) New York: W. W. Norton and Company. google scholar
  • Matisse, H. (1935). Pink Nude. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, USA. https://collection.artbma.org/ objects/55090/large-reclining-nude google scholar
  • Olivetti, K. (2016). Medusa—Monster or Muse? Jung Journal, 10(2), 37-47, DOI: 10.1080/19342039.2016.1158068 Peterson, A. T., & Dunworth, D. J. (2004). Mythology in Our Midst: A Guide to Cultural References. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing. google scholar
  • Pokhrel, A. K. (2015). Re-(en)visioning “the vanishing of the past”: Myth, Art, and Women in A. S. Byatt’s “Medusa’s Ankles” and “Art Work”, Women’s Studies, 44(3), 392-424, DOI: 10.1080/00497878.2015.1009763. google scholar
  • Silverman, D. K. (2016). Medusa: Sexuality, Power, Mastery, and Some Psychoanalytic Observations. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 17(2), 114-125, DOI: 10.1080/15240657.2016.1172926. google scholar
  • Staley, G. (2008). Beyond glorious ocean: Feminism, myth, and America. In V. Zajko & M. Leonard (Eds.), Laughing with Medusa: Classical Myths and Feminist Thought (209-232). Oxford: Oxford University Press. google scholar
  • Tiffin, J. (2006). Ice, Glass, Snow: Fairy Tale as Art and Metafiction in the Writing of A. S.Byatt. Marvels & Tales, 20(1), 47-66. google scholar
  • Uçar, A. S. (2020). Color, Chaos and Matisse: The Cleaning Lady’s ‘Work of Art’ in A. S. Byatt’s “Art Work”. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 37(1), 186-194. google scholar

Medusa and Matisse: Myth and Art in A.S. Byatt’s “Medusa’s Ankles”

Year 2023, Volume: 33 Issue: 1, 205 - 218, 04.07.2023

Asya Sakine Uçar

https://doi.org/10.26650/LITERA2022-1104177

Abstract

In “Medusa’s Ankles”, English novelist and writer A.S. Byatt syncretizes a marginal female mythical figure, Medusa from Greek mythology, with a modern work of art by the French artist Henri Matisse, Pink Nude (1935). In the story, the protagonist Susannah’s visit to a hairdresser upon seeing an image of that painting culminates in an act of smashing the salon mirror. Such Medusean rage becomes symbolic as it represents a disengagement from dominant ideologies and stereotypical notions concerning a woman’s body, gender and sexuality. Extremely conscious of her aging body, classics professor Susannah interiorizes the cultural demand that women be young and beautiful; hence the fragments of the mirror reflecting distorted images point to the whole concept of ill or misrepresented women in society. Employing myth and art as key intertextual elements, Byatt presents confounding models to interpret Susannah’s struggle for identity offering innovative perspectives on body/mind dilemma and mirror/gaze argument. While the mythopoeia of Medusa, generally associated with fear and rage, could also connote creative energy and empowerment, the unusual and unattractive depiction of a female body represented by Matisse’s Pink Nude could offer a novel way of exploring the representation of women against sexually charged images in a society defined by certain assumptions.

Keywords

Medusa Matisse myth art Byatt

References

  • Alban, G. (2017). The Medusa Gaze in Contemporary Women’ s Fiction: Petrifying, Maternal and Redemptive. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. google scholar
  • Al-Hadi, H. (2010). Sleeping Beauties or Laughing Medusas: Myth and Fairy Tale in The Work of Angela Carter, A. S. Byatt and Marina Warner. (Doctoral Dissertation, Newcastle University, Newcastle). Retrieved from https:// theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/bitstream/10443/1258/1/Al-Hadi%2011.pdf google scholar
  • Bowers, S. R. (1990). Medusa and the Female Gaze. NWSA Journal, 2(2), 217-35, http://www.jstor.org/ stable/4316018. google scholar
  • Byatt, A.S. (1995). Medusa’s Ankles. The Matisse Stories. New York: Vintage Books. google scholar
  • Byatt, A.S. (2000). True Stories and the Facts in Fiction. On Histories and Stories: Selected Essays. London: Harvard University Press. google scholar
  • Byatt, A.S. (2000). Old Tales, New Forms. On Histories and Stories: Selected Essays. London: Harvard University Press. google scholar
  • Byatt, A.S. (1991). Passions of the Mind. London: Chatto & Windus. google scholar
  • Byatt, A.S. (2002). Portraits in Fiction. New York: Vintage Editions. google scholar
  • Campbell, J. (2004). A. S. Byatt and the Heliotropic Imagination. Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. google scholar
  • Cixous, H. & Cohen, K., & Cohen, P. (1976). The Laugh of the Medusa. Signs, 1(4), 875-893. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/3173239 google scholar
  • Elderfield, J. (1984). The Drawings of Henri Matisse. New York: Thames and Hudson, google scholar
  • Fishwick, S. (2004). Encounters with Matisse: Space, Art, and Intertextuality in A. S. Byatt’s “The Matisse Stories” and Marie Redonnet’s “Villa Rosa.” The Modern Language Review, 99(1), 52-64. https://doi. org/10.2307/3738865 google scholar
  • Flam, J. D. (1978). Matisse on Art. New York: E. P. Dutton. google scholar
  • Franken, C. (2001). A.S. Byatt: Art, Authorship, Creativity. New York: Palgrave. google scholar
  • Gardam, S. (2013). Sound Apples, Fair Flesh, and Sunlight. A. S. Byatt’s Feminist Critique of Matisse’s depictions of Women. In Nancy Pedri and Laurence Petit (Eds.), Picturing the language of Images (119-133). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. google scholar
  • Harries, E. W. (2008). Ancient Forms: Myth, Fairy Tale, and Narrative in A.S. Byatt’s Fiction. In Stephen Benson (Ed.), Contemporary Fiction and the Fairy Tale (74-98). Detroit: Wayne State University Press. google scholar
  • Heffernan, J. (1993). Museum of Words: The Poetics of Ekphrasis from Homer to Ashbery. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. google scholar
  • Lacan, J. (2006). Ecrits: The First Complete Edition in English. (Bruce Fink, Trans.) New York: W. W. Norton and Company. google scholar
  • Matisse, H. (1935). Pink Nude. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, USA. https://collection.artbma.org/ objects/55090/large-reclining-nude google scholar
  • Olivetti, K. (2016). Medusa—Monster or Muse? Jung Journal, 10(2), 37-47, DOI: 10.1080/19342039.2016.1158068 Peterson, A. T., & Dunworth, D. J. (2004). Mythology in Our Midst: A Guide to Cultural References. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing. google scholar
  • Pokhrel, A. K. (2015). Re-(en)visioning “the vanishing of the past”: Myth, Art, and Women in A. S. Byatt’s “Medusa’s Ankles” and “Art Work”, Women’s Studies, 44(3), 392-424, DOI: 10.1080/00497878.2015.1009763. google scholar
  • Silverman, D. K. (2016). Medusa: Sexuality, Power, Mastery, and Some Psychoanalytic Observations. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 17(2), 114-125, DOI: 10.1080/15240657.2016.1172926. google scholar
  • Staley, G. (2008). Beyond glorious ocean: Feminism, myth, and America. In V. Zajko & M. Leonard (Eds.), Laughing with Medusa: Classical Myths and Feminist Thought (209-232). Oxford: Oxford University Press. google scholar
  • Tiffin, J. (2006). Ice, Glass, Snow: Fairy Tale as Art and Metafiction in the Writing of A. S.Byatt. Marvels & Tales, 20(1), 47-66. google scholar
  • Uçar, A. S. (2020). Color, Chaos and Matisse: The Cleaning Lady’s ‘Work of Art’ in A. S. Byatt’s “Art Work”. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 37(1), 186-194. google scholar
There are 25 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Creative Arts and Writing
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Asya Sakine Uçar 0000-0002-9653-2911

Publication Date July 4, 2023
Submission Date April 19, 2022
Published in Issue Year 2023 Volume: 33 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Uçar, A. S. (2023). Medusa and Matisse: Myth and Art in A.S. Byatt’s “Medusa’s Ankles”. Litera: Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, 33(1), 205-218. https://doi.org/10.26650/LITERA2022-1104177
AMA Uçar AS.Medusa and Matisse: Myth and Art in A.S. Byatt’s “Medusa’s Ankles.” Litera. July 2023;33(1):205-218. doi:10.26650/LITERA2022-1104177
Chicago Uçar, Asya Sakine. “Medusa and Matisse: Myth and Art in A.S. Byatt’s ‘Medusa’s Ankles’”. Litera: Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies 33, no. 1 (July 2023): 205-18. https://doi.org/10.26650/LITERA2022-1104177.
EndNote Uçar AS (July 1, 2023) Medusa and Matisse: Myth and Art in A.S. Byatt’s “Medusa’s Ankles”. Litera: Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies 33 1 205–218.
IEEE A. S. Uçar, “Medusa and Matisse: Myth and Art in A.S. Byatt’s ‘Medusa’s Ankles’”, Litera, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 205–218, 2023, doi: 10.26650/LITERA2022-1104177.
ISNAD Uçar, Asya Sakine. “Medusa and Matisse: Myth and Art in A.S. Byatt’s ‘Medusa’s Ankles’”. Litera: Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies 33/1 (July 2023), 205-218. https://doi.org/10.26650/LITERA2022-1104177.
JAMA Uçar AS. Medusa and Matisse: Myth and Art in A.S. Byatt’s “Medusa’s Ankles”. Litera. 2023;33:205–218.
MLA Uçar, Asya Sakine. “Medusa and Matisse: Myth and Art in A.S. Byatt’s ‘Medusa’s Ankles’”. Litera: Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, vol. 33, no. 1, 2023, pp. 205-18, doi:10.26650/LITERA2022-1104177.
Vancouver Uçar AS. Medusa and Matisse: Myth and Art in A.S. Byatt’s “Medusa’s Ankles”. Litera. 2023;33(1):205-18.
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