Women, the Classics and the Rewriting Turn in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

These introductory pages contextualise the chapters of the collective volume 'Classical Reception and the Rewriting Turn in Contemporary Women’s Fiction' within the broader phenomenon of twenty-first-century, female-authored engagements with the classics. The phrase the rewriting turn is introduced here to capture this critical juncture in contemporary thought, as well as in cultural, literary and publishing trends. Writers such as Margaret Atwood, Pat Barker, Emily Hauser, Natalie Haynes and Madeline Miller, among others, approach classical texts not only as sources of creative inspiration but also as sites of critique and social intervention. By engaging with wider societal debates about women’s voices in literature, politics and culture, these works ultimately interrogate entrenched power structures in ways that resonate with ongoing feminist discourse and address the pressing concerns of our times.