Fashioning the Feminine in the Greek Novel

In the on-going debate on gender in antiquity the Greek novel occupies a special place. This is a simultaneously reliable and fascinating insight into the kaleidoscopic world of male and female in the novels. Haynes shows that the strong heroines are best understood not as an undistorted mirror on an improved social reality, but as a type of "constructed femine." She situates the novelistic heroines within a continuing tradition of using the female image to say something about the male self and his aspirations. Rather than as "failed heroes" the males are revieled as promotinga particularly provocative brand of passive masculinity. A full examination of the subsidiary male and female characters "frames" the protagonists' portrayal and acts as a guide to the extent to which they subvert traditional gender norms.

Katharine Haynes is an Associate Lecturer with the Open University. She also lectures part-time at the University of Birmingham