TRANSFORMATION OF GENRE MODELS IN THE NOVEL BY M. ATWOOD THE PENELOPIAD IN THE CONTEXT OF GENOLOGY: POSTMODERN DECONSTRUCTION OF MYTH
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/folium/2026.9.5Keywords:
Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad, genre modifications, postmodernism, remythologizing, feminist criticism, chorus, polyphony, demythologizing, deconstruction of myth, mythopoeticAbstract
The article analyses the transformation of genre models in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Penelopiad (2005), which represents a postmodern strategy of demythologizing and feminist rewriting of myth. The work analyses the genre modifications of the chapters of the novel, including the choral parts of the maids, which form the polyphonic structure of the text. Modern English-language and Ukrainian literary studies are involved, which allow us to outline the place of The Penelopiad in the modern literary process, which demonstrates the transformation of myth and genre hybridity as a tool of feminist criticism. It is investigated how the 21st-century text creates new genre models, what determines such transformations, and how cultural and communicative changes are reflected in them. The purpose of the article is to analyse modern theories of genre and identify key trends that determine the genre system of 21st-century literature and artistically implement the postmodern deconstruction of myth using the example of M. Atwood’s novel The Penelopiad, with the study of genre models of the novel. Research methods: a combination of structural, deconstructive, narratological, discursive-analytical approaches, within which the female narrative voice is considered a genre-forming element of the literary text. The theoretical basis of the study is formed on the basis of classical and contemporary works on genre theory, postmodernism, myth transformation, and feminist literary criticism. Results. The article examines how new genre modifications are created in M. Atwood’s novel The Penelopiad, which form a postmodern deconstruction of myth, postmodernist transformations of genre and myth, and proposes a conceptual rethinking of the genre content of the novel. Conclusions. The article summarizes the achievements of modern genological studies in the context of genre modifications, about M. Atwood’s novel The Penelopiad as a modern genre manifesto, and about feminist deconstruction of myth.
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