The original title of Maria Tatar's book, The Hero with 1001 Faces, contains one more face than cultural critic Joseph Campbell's similar 1949 work, The Hero of a Thousand Faces, which The Hero with a Thousand Faces does not even polemicise but rather mercilessly debunks. Critic Lidia Maslova read the revolutionary work and presents the book of the week, specially for Izvestia.
Maria Tatar
"The heroine with a thousand faces: the female archetype in mythology and literature"
Judging by Tatarka's intonation in the first few pages, he finds it simply embarrassing to debate the backward and mossy Campbell, whose Jungian approach to the study of mythological archetypes was supposedly "losing its former authority and was even ridiculed" in the 1970s, when the progressive researcher was just beginning to teach at Harvard. Even more ridiculous, according to Tatar, is the clinging to Campbell's patriarchal schemes today, when "the scientific world has traded eternal truths for cultural constructs and poststructuralist uncertainty."
By adding another face to her heroine, the author of the book is clearly suggesting Shahrazad from the Arabian Nights tales. Along with Penelope from The Odyssey, she exemplifies the essential female skill needed to survive in a male-dominated society: the ability to "patch holes with threads and words, to give advice and report crimes" and thus "transform the culture in which they happen to live." In addition to venerable mythological icons, the pages of "The Heroine with a Thousand Faces" affirm the feminine self of Jo March from Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," the young amateur sleuth Nancy Drew, the charming fey Carrie Bradshaw from the TV series. "Sex and the City," and Swedish hacker Lisbeth Salander, created by Stieg Larsson from Astrid Lindgren's heroine Pippi Longstocking, as well as a separate favorite of Harvard folklore - Wonder Woman from the comic book of the same name. "It was when Campbell was writing his 'Hero with a Thousand Faces' that Marston cultivated the image of Wonder Woman. "Even girls don't want to be girls," he complained, "because our female archetype has no strength, no greatness, no power." For him, the obvious antidote to a culture that devalued girls was to create "a female character with all the traits of Superman but also the appeal of a kind and beautiful woman."
In addition, Tatar explores modern feminist nonfiction with a desire to add and reinvent classic mythological plots: '... modern writers are bringing back to the stage women of the past, relegated to supporting roles, and giving them the right to vote, thereby acknowledging their ingenuity and equipping them with the ability to act independently. Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad, Natalie Haynes's A Thousand Ships, and Pat Barker's The Silence of the Maidens are prime examples of books that offer us new readings of the Iliad and the Odyssey while reminding us that there is a different side to every story, and those who are disenfranchised. are not disenfranchised from acting like heroes." True, the modernized ancient tales in the Tartars' retelling do not so much arouse curiosity (which the researcher claims is the most commendable female trait) but rather confusion. And German writer Christa Wolf's revolutionary suggestion to replace all the great heroes of world literature with women looks like the same as the mischievous hooligan painting of a moustache on Gioconda, only the opposite: it's generally amusing, but the artistic merit is not obvious.
"The Heroine with a Thousand Faces" is generously layered with the most advanced feminist vocabulary ("otherness", "gender", "identity", "non-binary", "narrative", "toxic masculinity", "re-appropriation" , "empathy", "the Bechdel test") and insulting references to the sexist Campbell, in whose books it is hard enough for the unbiased reader to detect any gender discrimination. In Campbell's dialectical picture of the world, the feminine and the masculine exist in unity, struggle, and other complex, sometimes painful and traumatic, but inseparable relationships: 'The gods who unite the masculine and feminine principles are often found in the world of myth. Their appearance is always associated with some mystery; they transport the mind beyond objective perception into a symbolic realm where duality does not exist." With the wise Campbell it is self-evident that the hero can mean both man and woman, and as an illustration of one idea or another, the story of King Arthur can coexist as well as one from quite another part of the world. of a native girl Arapaho from the North American plains.
But the vigilant Maria Tatar carefully keeps track of Campbell's references to self-satisfied, prosperous men engaged in "self-exaltation and self-mythologizing" and women "socially alienated, economically exploited, and sexually enslaved" who, at the cost of incredible effort and ingenuity, "have managed not only to survive but also to make their lives meaningful." With the meaning of human life, everything is much simpler - it is all about measuring success, building hierarchies, insulting, oppressing and raping. It is not for nothing that "The Heroine with a Thousand Faces" devotes many inspiring paragraphs to the #MeToo movement that have more journalistic than cultural value.
"Today, women are also resorting to storytelling, but in a different way - they are not trying to engage and educate the listener by telling fictional events, but are telling real stories from their lives, very convincingly listing the insults and bullying they have suffered. As recent news headlines and the #MeToo movement have shown, stories are a powerful weapon in the fight against various forms of social injustice and a means of redressing the kinds of abuse that Shahrazad sought to eliminate," Tatar writes, without noting the dubious parallels between # stories. MeToo and fairy tales. But there's no reason not to believe the 87-year-old writer's personal recollections of a lecherous teacher who tried to retaliate during her dissertation defense: "A year ago, I fled his office when he tried to corner me, and I still remember how he talked about his passion for red-haired women from Eastern Europe and how relieved I was when I grabbed the handle of the front door and found it unlocked."
As for the scientific and philosophical component of "The Heroine of a Thousand Faces," the author's main conceptual invention is perhaps the analogy between spinning, weaving, and verbal self-expression, which is rooted in the ancient Greek stories of Philomela and Arachne, but easily adapted. craftsmen of later times: 'They have little sword to wield and often lack the pen, so they resort to traditional domestic crafts and their verbal counterparts - weaving tales, weaving plots and spinning stories - to remedy the situation and at the same time not only to get even with the offender but also to achieve social justice. Of course, the textile metaphor is not without a certain wit, though it is risky, like many of the rhetorical devices of the Tatars.
Although its main purpose is to expose men who silence women and stubbornly prevent women from saying important things, the assertive "Heroine of a Thousand Faces" may remind Russian readers of the popular joke "Girl, what are you knitting? ", illustrating women's amazing ability to promote their own extraordinary abilities in any field without pausing for a second.
(Izvestia/Jana Černá)
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