The Metamorphoses of Myth in Fiction since 1960 by Kathryn Hume

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Metamorphoses of Myth in Fiction since 1960 by Kathryn Hume Fiona Cox The Metamorphoses of Myth in Fiction since 1960. By Kathryn Hume. New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2020. xii+192 pp. £85 (pbk £28.99). ISBN 978–1–5013–5987–3 (pbk 978–1–5013–7824–9). Kathryn Hume opens the volume by asking: 'Why should contemporary Anglophone writers use myths from ancient Greece and Rome, from Pharaonic Egypt, from the Viking north, from Africa's west coast, and from Hebrew and Christian traditions?' (p. i). This is, of course, a big question eliciting a range of responses, and the wide, inclusive sweep of mythologies indicates the vast scope of this volume, a breadth that is all the more striking since the book is relatively short. Hume's extraordinarily wide-ranging expertise and reading are evidenced throughout the volume as we move from Mailer to Acker to Vonnegut, Pullman, and Calvino (the one non-Anglophone writer), and many more. The dizzying array of primary sources is indicated in the chapter titles—for example, the final chapter, Chapter 6, is entitled 'The Contemporary Functions of Myth as Artistic Tool: Pynchon, Arthurian stories, Faber, Pullman, Morrow, Ducornet, Marcus, Atwood, Vonnegut, Naylor, Morrison, Silko, Östergren, Winterson, Grossman, Rucker'. This is an astonishing range of writers and subjects to cover in just 28 pages. Previous chapters take as their focus 'Multiple Selves and Egyptian Mythology', 'Mythological Worlds and Death', 'Orpheus and Eurydice: Variations on a Theme', 'Invented Myth: The Problem of Power', and 'Situational Myth: Posthuman Metamorphoses'. All promise a wide selection of sources enriching the discussion. Hume writes well and engagingly and I read the book with pleasure and profit. I learnt a great deal and was introduced to a range of authors whose works I have not yet considered. I particularly enjoyed the nuanced discussion of Janette Turner Hospital's Orpheus Lost. The presentation of Neil Gaiman's work and thought was also especially suggestive and persuasive. There is a particular emphasis in the volume on dystopian fiction, which has been understudied to date, at least in the area of classical reception. The virtues of the volume are, however, directly tied to [End Page 241] what might be perceived as its shortcomings. There were many times when I would greatly have welcomed far more detailed discussion of an author or a work, but found myself tantalized with a brief analysis before the discussion moved on to the next book or the next author. Since so many authors and texts are covered there is a lot of introductory discussion, which sometimes comes at the cost of more probing analysis. I also think that much of the exposition could have been enriched by closer engagement with other scholarly works within the field. Certainly there has been much work on contemporary literature and classical reception which is absent from the Bibliography and which could have added texture to the discussion of authors such as Winterson, Byatt, and Morrison. I am thinking particularly of studies such as Tessa Roynon, The Classical Tradition in Modern American Fiction (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021), and Judith Fletcher, Myths of the Underworld in Contemporary Culture: The Backward Gaze (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019). I am aware, however, that a more focused and substantial engagement of selected authors would have reduced the extraordinary scope of this volume, and that would have been to its detriment. I closed the book wishing that there was much more, but grateful for the pleasure of being introduced to so much fresh material. This is a book that will open the eyes of any reader to unfamiliar worlds and undiscovered texts and which makes a genuine contribution to the expanding field of engagements with, and rewritings of, classical Greek and Roman myths in fiction of the last sixty years. Fiona Cox University of Exeter Copyright © 2023 Modern Humanities Research Association