The Monster’s Gaze Disrupting the Male Gaze: Trauma, Gender and Feminist Mythmaking in Rosie Hewlett’s 'Medusa'

Abstract

This chapter examines Rosie Hewlett’s novel 'Medusa' (2021) as a contemporary feminist reimagining that reclaims the myth of Medusa through a survivor-centred lens. Hewlett’s retelling, aimed at a younger and broader readership, aligns with the discourse of the current feminist wave by foregrounding themes of sexual violence, narrative agency and symbolic resistance. The novel reframes the youngest of the Gorgon sisters, once cast as a Freudian figure of male fear, as an emblem of what Hélène Cixous identified as 'écriture féminine': a voice reclaiming power through self-narration. Hewlett also reconceives Perseus as an embodiment of deconstructed masculinity, shaped by inherited trauma and empathy rather than heroic conquest. By analysing both the narrative’s accessibility and its engagement with structural and symbolic violence, this study finally argues for Hewlett’s contribution to the evolving project of feminist mythmaking and its genealogy of female mythmakers.