Parodies and retellings

Retellings, recuperations, reclamations.

Retelling stories is a common way for critics to make a critical point about a work. The commentary might be humorous, as in a humorous parody; critical, as in a work that demonstrates the earlier work's failings of writing or perspective; or exploratory, as in a work that explores new dimensions and resonances of an early story.

Examples are particularly common within science fiction and fantasy, but have also been common outside of sf.

• The Wizard of Oz ... Gregory Maguire's Wicked and Geoff Ryman's Was
• The Hobbit ... Pat Murphy's There and Back Again

• numerous fairy tales & myths & folktales, including the King Arthur stories recycled by Marion Zimmer Bradley as The Mists of Avalon, which set off a veritable storm of retellings; Pygmalion and Galatea story which has been retold many, many times, including in feminist sf Amy Thomson's Virtual Girl. Another landmark book: Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's Snow White, Blood Red. To some extent, all retellings are reappropriations of myths, old or new; without a certain mythic status in a culture, there would be no point in retelling a work.
  • The Snow Queen ... Joan Vinge's The Snow Queen
  • Sleeping Beauty ... Mercedes Lackey's The Gates of Sleep, Sheri S. Tepper's Beauty...
  • Helen of Troy / Iphigenia / Cassandra - Helen of Troy in "Helen Remembers the Stork Club" by Esther M. Friesner; whole saga in Sheri S. Tepper's The Gates to Women's Country
  • Bluebeard -
  • The Robber Bride / The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
  • Peter Pan - "Lost Girls" by Pat Cadigan (1993)
  • swans - Peg Kerr, "The Wild Swans" (1999)
  • deerskin - Robin McKinley, Deerskin (1993)

Some non-SF examples:

• Gone With the Wind ... Alice Randall's The Wind Done Gone
• Lolita ... Lo's Diary
• Jane Eyre ... The Wide Sargasso Sea
• Pamela Frankau, Jezebel (1937) (see Bibliography)

See Mythological Female Characters