Keywords:
Amazons, Wonder Woman, lesbianism, Classical ReceptionAbstract
Over the centuries, several elements from Classical Antiquity have been adapted and remodelled to give a voice to modern identities, creating a chain of receptions going from the archetype to the contemporary product. Thus, the warrior woman model encapsulated by the Amazon has been transmitted until 20th century, when it served as a reference for the creation of Wonder Woman, from the homonymous comic. Using Classical Reception theory as a framework, this paper seeks to analyse the dynamics of reception and appropriation of the Amazon by the lesbian collective, through the comic book Wonder Woman. For that purpose, it will delve into the features of the classical archetype and its tradition, in relation to the feminist ideology of its creator, William Moulton Marston. The ultimate goal is the identification of the elements of the classic referent and its rewriting that paved the way to its lesbian reinterpretation, among which Amazons’ agency stands out, together with their geographical location on an island and the superhero costume.
Downloads
References
Abate, Michelle Ann, Karly Marie Grice y Christine N. Stamper. 2018. Introduction: 'Suffering Sappho!': Lesbian Content and Queer Female Characters in Comics. Journal of Lesbian Studies 22(4): 329-335. https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2018.1449500
Berlatsky, Noah. 2015. Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics, 1941-1948. New Brunswick/New Jersey/London: Rutgers University Press.
Call, Lewis. 2013. BDSM in American Science Fiction and Fantasy. New York/Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137283474
Castelnuovo, Shirley y Sharon R. Guthrie. 1998. Feminism & the Female Body: Liberating the Amazon Within. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Cyrino, Monica y Meredith E. Safran (eds.). 2015. Classical Myth on Screen. New York: Palgrave and Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137486035
Cocca, Carolyn. (2014) Negotiating the Third Wave of Feminism in Wonder Woman. PS: Political Science & Politics 47.1: 98-103. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096513001662
Davies, Peter. 2009. Women Warriors, Feminism and National Socialism: The Recepcion of J. J. Bachofen's View of Amazons among German and Austrian Right-Wing Women Writers. En Women and Death 2, Sarah Colvin y Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly (Eds.), 45-58. Rochester/New York: Camden House.
Deriu, Morena. 2019. Not Every Woman is an Island: Some Notes about Isles of Women and Colonisation in the Odyssey. Rhesis. International Journal of Linguistics, Philology, and Literature 10(2): 19-32.
Dowden, Ken. 1997. The Amazons: Development and Functions. Rheinisches Museum 140(2): 97-128.
Duncan, Randy, y Matthew J. Smith. 2009. The Power of Comics. History, Form and Culture. New York/London: Bloomsbury.
Fabre-Serris, Jaqueline. 2019. Ripensare il genere. Alcune riflessioni sulle riscritture del mito delle Amazzoni. Conferencia presentada en el congreso "Crossing Gender Boundaries. Brave Women Living in Texts and Images", 26-28 de noviembre, Santa María Capua Vetere.
Finn, Michelle R. 2014. William Marston's Feminist Agenda. En The Ages of Wonder Woman. Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, Joseph J. Darowski (ed.), 7-21. Jefferson/London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
Gramstad, Thomas. 1999. The Female Hero. A Randian-Feminist Synthesis. En Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand, Mimi Reisel Gladstein y Chris Matthew Sciabarra (eds.), 333-362. Pennsylvania State University Press.
Hardwick, Lorna. 2003. Reception Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hatfield, Charles. 2005. Alternative Comics: an Emerging Literature. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Hood, Clifton. 1998. Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940. Journal of Urban History 24(6): 782-793. https://doi.org/10.1177/009614429802400608
Jeffrey, Sheila. 2003. Unpacking Queer Politics: A Lesbian Feminist Perspective. Cambridge: Polity.
Kovacs, George y Christopher W. Marshall (Eds.). 2011. Classics and Comics. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kovacs, George y Christopher W. Marshall (Eds.). 2015. Son of Classics and Comics. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lepore, Jill. 2014. The Secret History of Wonder Woman. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
López Gregoris, Rosario. 2020. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Homer, Joyce and Bechel. Classical Reception and Comic Hybridization. The Heroine Explores Her Sexual Identity. En The Hero Reloaded. The Reinvention of the Classical Hero in Contemporary Mass Media, Rosario López Gregoris y Cristóbal Macías Villalobos (Eds.), 143-157. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.23.c7
Masotta, Oscar. 1970. La historieta en el mundo moderno. Barcelona: Ediciones Paidós.
Mayor, Adrienne. 2014. Amazonas. Guerreras del mundo antiguo. Traducción de Jorge García Cardiel. Madrid: Desperta Ferro Ediciones.
Marston, William Moulton. 1928. The Emotions of Normal People. London/New York: Kegan Paul/Harcourt. https://doi.org/10.1037/13390-000
McCausland, Elisa. 2017. Wonder Woman. El feminismo como superpoder. Madrid: Errata Naturae.
Meyer, Moe. 1994. The Politics and Poetics of Camp. London: Routledge.
Penrose, Walter D. Jr. 2019. The Unwanted Gaze? Feminism and the Reception of the Amazons in Wonder Woman. EuGeStA 9: 176-224.
Perrotta, Annalisa. 2015. La sfida di Rovenza dal martello, donna, guerriera e regina: analisi di un episodio della saga di Rinaldo da Montalbano, Rassegna Europea di Letteratura Italiana 45/46: 39-59.
Rich, Adrienne. (1986). Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence (1980). En Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979-1985, Adrienne Rich, 23-75. New York/London: W.W. Norton & Company.
Robinson, Lillian. 2004. Wonder Women: Feminisms and Superheroes. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203642016
Sánchez Pérez, Carlos. 2019. Hermes Trismegisto: de la mística a la fantasía. Pervivencia de los textos herméticos de la antigüedad a nuestros días. Tesis doctoral, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
Santini, Daria. 2009. The German Reception of the Amazon Myths from Hederich to Bachofen. En Women and Death 2, Sarah Colvin y Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly (Eds.), 15-27. Rochester/New York: Camden House.
Sontag, Susan. 1964. Notes on "Camp". Penguin Books.
Spieldenner, Andrew R. 2012. Altered Egos: Gay Men Reading across Gender Difference in Wonder Woman. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2012.718288
Stanley, Kelli E. 2005. 'Suffering Sappho!': Wonder Woman and the (Re)Invention of the Feminine Ideal. Helios 32(2): 143-171.
This, Craig. 2014. Containing Wonder Woman: Fredric Wertham's Battle Against the Mighty Amazon. En The Ages of Wonder Woman. Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, Joseph J. Darowski (ed.), 30-41. Jefferson/London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
Unceta Gómez, Luis. 2019. El epítome como representación del original. Algunos ejemplos del diálogo posmoderno con la antigua Roma. En En los márgenes de Roma. La Antigüedad romana en la cultura de masas contemporánea, Luis Unceta Gómez y Carlos Sánchez Pérez (eds.), 17-35. Madrid: UAM-Los libros de la Catarata.
Unceta Gómez, Luis. 2020. From Hero to Superhero. The Update of an Archetype. En The Hero Reloaded. The Reinvention of the Classical Hero in Contemporary Mass Media, Rosario López Gregoris y Cristobal Macías Villalobos (eds.), 1-17. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
United Nations. 2016. Wonder Woman Appointed UN Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls. UN News, 21 de octubre. Consultado el 10/03/2020. https://news.un.org/en/story/2016/10/543462-wonder-woman-appointed-un-honorary-ambassador-empowerment-women-and-girls.
Young, Serinity. 2018. Women Who Fly: Goddesses, Witches, Mystics, and other Airborne Females. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wittig, Monique. 1992. El pensamiento heterosexual y otros ensayos. Traducción de Javier Sáez y Paco Vidarte. Barcelona, Madrid: Egales.